Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate she has made of the number of children accessing online suicide fora.

The Online Safety Act requires in-scope services, including in-scope gaming services, to prevent all users from encountering illegal suicide and self-harm content, and children from legal content encouraging, promoting, or providing instructions for suicide or self-harm.

It is difficult to estimate how many children access online suicide fora. Ofcom research indicates that fewer than 3 secondary school students in a thousand encounter suicide content through a broad category of websites, that would include suicide fora, during a four-week period. Five in a thousand encountered suicide content through online gaming platforms during the same period.

Ofcom’s first investigation under the Act targeted a pro-suicide forum. On 6 January, Ofcom confirmed it informed the forum provider that Ofcom is working towards issuing a provisional notice of contravention in relation to Act breaches.