Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Online Safety Bill will enable the regulator to proactively assess online pornography services' compliance with age-verification requirements.

The Online Safety Bill will deliver comprehensive protections for children from online pornography. All sites that offer pornography will need to put in place measures such as age verification to prevent children accessing pornographic content on their services or face enforcement action.

In assessing compliance or the risk of non-compliance, Ofcom will have wide-ranging information gathering and investigation powers. This includes the power to require information from companies and relevant third parties, the power to audit companies and interview employees, as well as enter and inspect companies’ premises and seize equipment and/or documents with a warrant. These powers will ensure that Ofcom is able to effectively assess whether companies are fulfilling their regulatory requirements.