Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of non-explicit sexual content and promotional material for adult services on social media platforms; and what steps she is taking to help reduce associated risks, particularly for children and young people.

Under the Online Safety Act, services likely to be accessed by children are required to use highly effective age assurance to prevent children encountering pornography. Ofcom acknowledge in their guidance that suggestive content of a kind that might be expected to feature in an advertisement, may not be pornographic, but still may be inappropriate for children of certain age groups and require protections for them.

The Advertising Standards Authority requires the content of adverts to be socially responsible, to ensure vulnerable people, including children and young people, are protected. The UK Non-Broadcast Advertising Code specifies that adverts for age-restricted products are not targeted at children.