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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending Ofcom's powers to include the regulation of commercial pornography sites which do not implement safety by design and age verification.

The strongest protections in the draft Online Safety Bill are for children. Companies in scope of the legislation which are likely to be accessed by children will need to take steps to prevent children from accessing content which poses the highest risk of harm, including online pornography. Ofcom will set out in its codes of practice the steps companies need to take to comply with their duties under the Bill which we expect will include the use of age verification technologies.

The draft Bill covers many of the most visited pornography sites, social media platforms, video-sharing sites, forums and via search engines - thereby capturing many of the sites through which children access pornography.

The Government recognises the concerns that have been raised about online pornography on services which do not currently fall within the scope of the Bill. We are giving careful consideration to the Committee’s recommendations and remain committed to introducing the Bill as soon as possible.