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(asked on 21st February 2020) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to ensure online platforms do not host sexual content which has not been consented to by people who feature in it.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 2nd March 2020

The Online Harms White Paper set out government’s plans to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, enforced by an independent regulator. Companies will be required to take robust action to address harmful content and will be held to account for tackling a comprehensive set of online harms. Non-consensual sharing of private and sexual images, often known as “revenge pornography”, is in scope of these proposals. The regulator will have sufficient powers to take effective action against companies that breach regulatory requirements, including the power to levy substantial fines.

We are also making sure the criminal law is fit for purpose. The Law Commission is conducting a second phase of its review of abusive and offensive online communications. As part of this, the Law Commission will also look at the criminal law around the non-consensual taking and sharing of intimate images, and make recommendations to ensure that the law provides effective protection against the creation and sharing of intimate images without consent.

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