Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of requiring internet service providers to carry out age verification checks rather than individual websites.

The Online Safety Act makes online services responsible for protecting all users from illegal content and activity, and children from harmful content. Under the Act, services must use age assurance to prevent children encountering the most harmful content. We recognise that there may be benefits to internet service provider-level interventions. We have recently brought into effect the new measures and wish to allow time to assess the Act’s effectiveness before introducing additional measures. Where evidence demonstrates that further action is necessary to protect children and the wider public, we will not hesitate to act.