Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital Media Culture and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her policy on commencing Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 of the 26 September 2019 research by the BBFC in its role as designated age-verification regulator; and when she plans to lay the BBFC guidance on age-verification arrangements.
Answered by Matt Warman
Protecting children is at the heart of our online harms agenda, and is key to wider government priorities. The government published the Online Harms White Paper in April this year. It proposed the establishment of a duty of care on companies to improve online safety, overseen by an independent regulator with strong enforcement powers to deal with non-compliance. Since the White Paper's publication, the government's proposals have continued to develop at pace.
The government has concluded that the objectives of the Digital Economy Act will be best achieved through our wider online harms proposals and, as a consequence, will not be commencing Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 concerning age verification for online pornography. The Digital Economy Act objectives will be delivered through our proposed online harms regulatory regime which will result in a more coherent approach protecting children. We expect age verification to continue to be a tool used by companies to keep children safe online.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to ensure that the Internet Watch Foundation continues to receive government funding after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Margot James
The work of the Internet Watch Foundation is greatly valued by the UK Government, and is a key part of the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC). Under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, the UKSIC will continue to receive EU funding until the end of 2020. Continued UK participation in EU funding programmes is subject to negotiations on the UK's future partnership with the EU. In the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the Government has guaranteed successful bids to EU funds submitted by UK participants before the UK exits the EU.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he has made an assessment of the potential merits of the conclusions the report, Skin gambling: teenage Britain’s secret habit, published by Parent Zone in June 2018 of the assessment he has made of the findings of the June 2018; and what discussions he has had with the Gambling Commission on underage skin gambling.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The report from ParentZone highlighted concerns around ‘skins’ gambling, including that this may permit children to access gambling sites. It identified the role the government, industry, regulators and parents play in protecting children online.
Protecting children and the vulnerable from being harmed or exploited by gambling is a priority for the government and a core objective of the regulation of gambling in Great Britain. There are strong protections in place against operators of illegal gambling facilities, including within video games.
The Gambling Commission published a position paper which addressed gambling with in-game items in May 2017. It has a range of powers to act where there is a failure to prevent illegal gambling, including bringing criminal action against unlicensed operators that offer gambling to children.
The Commission is closely monitoring the convergence between video games and gambling and has shown it will take action and prosecute unlicensed gambling. The Commission is also seeking to work with the video games industry to raise awareness of and explore solutions to this issue.
As part of its work to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online, the Government published the Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper in October 2017 and published its consultation response in May this year.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2018 to question 136923 on Internet: Children, what criteria is planned to be used to define online services which are likely to be accessed by children.
Answered by Margot James
It will be for the Information Commissioner's Office to determine what criteria is used to define online services which are likely to be accessed by children as they are responsible for developing the new age-appropriate design code.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the powers available to the Information Commissioner’s Office to enforce their guidelines on online child safety.
Answered by Margot James
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is responsible for regulating compliance with data protection legislation. The Government's Data Protection Bill will strengthen legislation around data protection and give the Commissioner tougher powers to ensure that organisations comply.
As part of this Bill, the Information Commissioner’s office will now be responsible for producing a new statutory age appropriate design code for online services which are likely to be accessed by children. This code will help ensure that children in the UK are granted a robust data regime so they are able to access online services in a way that meets their age and development needs. It will ensure that websites and applications are designed in a way that makes clear what data is being collected on children, how this data is being used, and how both children and parents can stay in control of this data. Non-compliance with this code will be a factor in any ICO decision to bring forward enforcement action against websites that do not comply with the GDPR.
The Information Commissioner provides guidance and works with organisations to build compliance. There are a number of tools available to the ICO to ensure compliance with GDPR, including criminal prosecution, non-criminal enforcement and audit. For those who commit serious breaches there are significant financial penalties including fines up to £18 million or 4% of global turnover that can be applied as well as the backstop of criminal prosecution.