Internet: Safety

(asked on 20th January 2021) - View Source

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 level of accountability of (a) subscription-based adult websites and (b) free community selling pages to prevent online abuse and exploitation.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 25th January 2021

The Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, published in December 2020, sets out expectations on companies to keep their users safe online, including measures to tackle online abuse and exploitation. The Online Safety Bill, which will give effect to the Full Government Response, will be ready this year.

Under our proposals, websites, apps and other services which host user-generated content or allow people to talk to others online will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content. This includes social media, online marketplaces and community forums. Where pornography sites host user generated content or facilitate online user interaction, that content will be subject to the new legal duty of care. The largest social media companies will be held to account for what they say they are doing to tackle activity and content that is harmful to adults using their services.

The non-consensual disclosure of private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress, is already a criminal offence under section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. This is often referred to as the “revenge porn” offence. Under the new online safety laws, all companies will need to tackle illegal content, including “revenge porn” and illegal online abuse on their services, by making sure it is taken down quickly and using tools to minimise the risk of similar material appearing. Failure to do so could result in enforcement action by the regulator.

The Government is also working with the Law Commission to review the criminal law related to non-consensual image sharing. This includes the creation and sharing of ‘deep-fake’ pornography, upskirting and revenge porn. This review is considering existing offences, including the current “revenge porn” offence, and will identify where there are any gaps in protection already offered to victims. The Law Commission will publish its consultation paper shortly.

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