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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the level of risk of harm posed to children who are spending more time online as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

We know more people will be going online as a result of the Covid-19 lock down, including school age children. The internet can help children stay connected and access educational resources. However, it could also place them at greater risk of harm online.

On 22 April, I hosted a roundtable with child safety organisations to hear directly from them what trends they are seeing online during this period and discuss how government and civil society can work together to support children, parents and carers.

On 23rd April, DCMS published new online safety advice on how to stay safe online during the Covid-19 outbreak, with a particular focus on supporting parents and carers to protect children.

The Government is firmly committed to making the UK the safest place to be online, and we are working at pace to introduce Online Harms legislation.