Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help prevent discrimination against women in digital spaces.

Making the online environment a safer and fairer place for women and girls is a priority for this government.

The Online Safety Act has placed a requirement on tech platforms to proactively tackle the most harmful illegal content, much of which disproportionately affects women and girls, including harassment and intimate image abuse.

Ofcom recently published guidance outlining further steps services can take to make their platforms safer for women and girls online. We will be monitoring platforms’ progress closely and working with Ofcom to hold them to account.

The government is developing its wider strategy to tackle violence against women and girls and will publish it in due course.