Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to use powers in the Crime and Policing Act 2026 to bring AI chatbots within the scope of the illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act 2023; and whether all duties under that Act, including the children’s safety duties, will apply to them.

The government has taken powers through the Crime and Policing Act to bring currently unregulated chatbots within scope of the Online Safety Act's illegal content duties. We will use the affirmative procedure to lay secondary legislation to deliver on this commitment at the earliest possible opportunity.

We will keep the OSA’s role in mitigating AI harms to children under review and will not hesitate to go further where the evidence shows this is necessary.