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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the comments by Baroness Shields on 17 July (HL Deb, col 862), what measures regarding the protection of children’s safety online are being considered in the strategic defence and security review.

The Government remains committed to improving the safety of children online and continues to make significant progress in a variety of areas. The Government is working through the multi-stakeholder UK Council for Child Internet Safety to drive further progress, and maintain our position as a world leader in child internet safety.

At the “We Protect Summit” next month, we are seeking to promote a ModelNational Response that will provide guidance and support to countries on thecapabilities they need to have in place to combat online child sexual exploitation – which will in turn improve global coordination and our capability to act to protect the safety and human rights of children all over the world.

This will inform work on the relevant aspects of the 2015 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review.