Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to protect (a) children and (b) vulnerable users online before the Online Safety Bill is enacted.

Ahead of Online Safety legislation, the government is taking robust action to ensure that children and vulnerable users are safe online.

Our new regulatory regime for UK-established video sharing platforms requires them to take appropriate measures to protect under-18s from harmful material. Ofcom will be able to take enforcement action against platforms that do not comply.

The Age Appropriate Design Code, which will come into force in September 2021, will provide stronger protections for children’s personal data and guidance to companies on the privacy standards they must adopt on services that children are likely to access and which process their personal data.

On 14th July we published the government’s Media Literacy Strategy, which will educate and empower users with the skills and knowledge they need to keep themselves safe online, with an amplified focus on vulnerable and disabled users.

In June 2021, we published Safety by Design guidance and a One Stop Shop on child online safety. This guidance will ensure that companies are equipped with the knowledge that they need to embed safety into platform design to protect users.