Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when enhanced age verification and online safety measures to protect children from online facilitated sexual abuse will be implemented, in the context of the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

The Online Safety Act already meets the Inquiry’s recommendations on age-verification and online safety measures. The child safety duties require regulated services to implement highly effective age assurance to prevent children from accessing the most harmful content, including pornography, and implement age-appropriate measures to protect children from other legal but harmful material such as bullying or violent content.

The illegal content safety duties go beyond age-verification. Child sexual exploitation and abuse material is a priority offence, and under the duties, services must take proactive steps to prevent it appearing and remove it swiftly if it does.