Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of raising the digital age of consent.

When Information Society Services, such as social media or live streaming sites, rely on consent to process children’s data, consent is only lawful in respect of children under the age of 13 when parental authority has been granted. The current age of consent was set by Parliament in the Data Protection Act 2018. We will continue to keep the evidence for and against change in this area under review.