Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child adopting General Comment 26, what steps he plans to take to incorporate into UK law Article 19 on the Right to freedom from all forms of violence including protecting children from exposure to violence inflicted on animals.

The Government recognises the psychological harm that encountering animal cruelty content online can have on children. Content that depicts real or realistic serious violence or injury against an animal has been listed as ‘priority’ content that is harmful to children in the Online Safety Act.

Services will be required to assess the nature and level of risk of children encountering this kind of content on their service, and then take an age-appropriate approach to protect children from encountering it. Companies must also ensure that users, including children and their parents and carers, are able to easily access reporting mechanisms to report content and activity that is harmful to children. Platforms should respond quickly and effectively to protect users and other affected persons, which could include the removal of harmful content and sanctions against offending users.