Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with Ofcom on whether Ofcom has established whether Meta carried out a risk assessment before the recent roll out of its new AI image-generation feature; and whether the regulator judged that assessment to be suitable and sufficient, as required under the Online Safety Act.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
It is essential that AI providers keep users safe. The Online Safety Act requires regulated services to assess and mitigate risks to users, including protecting all users from illegal content, and children from content which is harmful or age-inappropriate.
AI services are already in scope of the Online Safety Act where they meet the definition of a regulated user-to-user service or search service. And through the Crime and Policing Act, we have taken powers to bring currently unregulated AI services into scope of the Online Safety Act’s illegal content duties.
The Government engages regularly with Ofcom on implementation of the Online Safety Act. It is for Ofcom to determine whether individual providers have met their legal obligations and whether risk assessments are suitable and sufficient.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the report by AI Forensics entitled ‘Harassment as Infrastructure’, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of payment providers facilitating payments for access to non-consensual intimate image.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Online Safety Act places clear duties on in-scope services to tackle illegal content, including non-consensual intimate image abuse, backed by Ofcom’s strong enforcement powers. Where services fail to comply, Ofcom can seek Business Disruption Measures to restrict access to those services, including measures which may require third-party payment providers to withdraw services from non-compliant sites.
We are strengthening the regulatory framework through new criminal offences and a 48-hour removal duty, alongside Ofcom’s use of hash-matching to prevent re-sharing.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has made an estimate of how much money online platforms receive from image-based sexual abuse channels on their services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Non-consensual intimate images (NCII) are completely unacceptable and tackling this abuse is a priority for this government.
Under the Online Safety Act, services must assess for the risk of NCII, take steps to prevent this content appearing and removing it swiftly when it does. This government has built on the framework by introducing a new requirement on service to remove NCII within 48 hours of a valid report.
This is complemented by Ofcom’s update to its illegal content codes on the use of hash-matching to deliver victim-centred protection from this horrific abuse.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will bring forward an AI Bill that ensures the safety of current and emerging AI products to help tackle the harms of tech-facilitated gender-based violence.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Tackling violence against women and girls, including online, is a government priority. The Online Safety Act (OSA) establishes a strong regime requiring in-scope AI services to tackle illegal content and protect children from harmful content.
However, we’ve always been clear we would go further where necessary to tackle emerging AI harms. We have criminalised the creation of non-consensual sexual deepfakes and we decided to make it an OSA Priority Offence. We have banned AI nudification apps. We have also legislated in the Crime and Policing Act to ensure that platforms are required to take down non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours. Ofcom has accelerated and announced its decision that service providers should use ‘hash matching’ technology to combat image abuse online.
New powers will also enable regulation of currently unregulated chatbots, requiring them to protect their users from illegal content, including non-consensual intimate images and child abuse. In response to the AI Action Plan, the Government committed to work with regulators to boost their capabilities.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has had discussions with Ofcom on the likely categorisation of Telegram; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of that categorisation on the risks of violence against women and girls on that platform.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Assessment and designation of services against the categorisation threshold conditions is a statutory duty for Ofcom. The regulator plans to publish the register of categorised services and to launch consulting on the relevant additional duties in July.
In November 2025, Ofcom published guidance for services on how they can tackle online VAWG on their platforms. The Secretary of State has been clear that platforms should implement this guidance by the end of the year – regardless of how services are categorised under the Online Safety Act. Information on Ofcom’s approach to implementing the Act, including on categorisation, is available here.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department plans to allocate funding from Ofcom’s fines to platforms for failure to comply with the Online Safety Act 2023 to organisations working to end violence against women and girls.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, fines imposed by Ofcom are paid into the Consolidated Fund, in line with standard practice across its regulatory functions. This ensures funds are distributed in accordance with overall government priorities, which may include victim support services.
However, fines are intended to drive compliance, not to act as a funding stream. Their inherently unpredictable nature makes them unsuitable for directly supporting work on violence against women and girls or compensating victims.
Decisions on the use of such funds are for HM Treasury, while the Ministry of Justice retains primary responsibility for victim support and compensation policy in England and Wales.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Ofcom’s Guidance, A Safe Life Online for Women and Girls, and whether the Guidance will be sufficient to reduce the risks women experience of non-consensual intimate image abuse on social media.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Online Safety Act provides world-leading protections against non-consensual intimate image abuse. The Government strengthened these by introducing a duty requiring platforms to remove NCII within 48 hours of a valid user report.
Ofcom published updated illegal content codes to prevent the re-upload of NCII, going beyond simple takedown. Its Codes of Practice and guidance outline steps providers can take to keep users safe.
The Secretary of State has been clear with platforms that they should implement Ofcom’s guidance to keep women and girls safe online by the end of the year and that this Government will monitor progress closely.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of Ofcom’s guidance entitled A Safe Life Online for Women and Girls in reducing the risks of non-consensual intimate image abuse on social media.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Online Safety Act provides world-leading protections against non-consensual intimate image abuse. The Government strengthened these by introducing a duty requiring platforms to remove NCII within 48 hours of a valid user report.
Ofcom published updated illegal content codes to prevent the re-upload of NCII, going beyond simple takedown. Its Codes of Practice and guidance outline steps providers can take to keep users safe.
The Secretary of State has been clear with platforms that they should implement Ofcom’s guidance to keep women and girls safe online by the end of the year and that this Government will monitor progress closely.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has taken steps to support platform compliance with Ofcom’s Guidance, A Safe Life Online for Women and Girls, and what discussions she has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities with respect to the metric(s) they intend to use to measure the impact of the guidance.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Secretary of State has been clear that the government expects platforms to implement Ofcom's guidance by the end of the year and has engaged directly with platforms to communicate this message. Ofcom plans to publish a report on platform's compliance with the guidance and the Secretary of State has encouraged Ofcom to do this as soon as possible.
Ministers have regular meetings with Cabinet colleagues on a range of subjects, including online safety for women and girls.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department has taken to support platform compliance with Ofcom's guidance entitled A Safe Life Online for Women and Girls; and by what metrics she plans to measure the impact of that guidance.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Secretary of State has been clear that the government expects platforms to implement Ofcom's guidance by the end of the year and has engaged directly with platforms to communicate this message. Ofcom plans to publish a report on platform's compliance with the guidance and the Secretary of State has encouraged Ofcom to do this as soon as possible.
Ministers have regular meetings with Cabinet colleagues on a range of subjects, including online safety for women and girls.