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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the prevalence of (a) sexual harassment and (b) misogynistic abuse against content creators in the digital economy.

We have made no specific assessment of this sort of abuse to date. We do recognise that some users are disproportionately affected by online abuse and we are taking action to address unacceptable behaviour online. The Online Harms White Paper, which was published in April this year, sets out the Government's plan to establish a statutory duty of care to make companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users and tackle harm caused by content or activity on their services.

The Law Commission began Phase 2 of their review of abusive and offensive communications online in July 2019. This will review existing communications offences and make specific recommendations about options for reform, to ensure that criminal law provides consistent and effective protection against such behaviour. A final report is expected in early 2021.