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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Online Safety Bill's ability to ensure companies in scope are (1) supporting, and (2) improving, the media literacy skills of their users.

The Online Safety Bill includes measures to encourage regulated service providers to promote media literacy to their users. Following a recommendation from the Joint Committee which conducted the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Online Safety Bill, media literacy is now included in the risk assessment duties. This requires in-scope companies to consider how the promotion of users’ media literacy can be used to mitigate harms on their platforms.

Media literacy is also expressly referred to in Ofcom’s new transparency reporting and information gathering powers, giving Ofcom enhanced visibility of industry spending and activity related to media literacy. Social media platforms currently play a significant role in boosting media literacy, in particular with regards to the funding of programmes. This greater visibility of spending and activity in this area will therefore strengthen Ofcom’s ability to undertake its statutory duty to promote media literacy.