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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to (a) protect children from accessing harmful pornographic material online and (b) ensure age verification is required for access to all sites containing pornographic material online.

The Government is committed to improving the safety of children online and has a strong track-record of working with the internet industry to drive progress in this area.

In its manifesto, this Government committed to requiring age verification for access to all sites containing pornographic material, which we are currently consulting on. The consultation, launched on 16 February, can be accessed at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/child-safety-online-age-verification-for-pornography

Family friendly filtering is another important means of protecting children from accessing harmful content, including pornographic material, online. The UK’s four major Internet Service Providers BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media now offer free-of-charge network level filters to their customers. Network level family friendly filters are also in place by default on most mobile phones.

Recently, Government asked Ofcom to lead a social media working group as part of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) to develop a practical guide for providers of social media and interactive services. Membership of the group included Twitter, Facebook, Google, Ask.FM, MindCandy and Microsoft. The guide contains examples of good practice from leading technology companies, and advice from charities and other online child safety experts. Its purpose is to encourage businesses to think about “safety by design” to help make their platforms safer for children and young people under 18.

At the same time, UKCCIS published a guide for parents and carers whose children are using social media. The guide includes practical tips about the use of safety and privacy features on apps and platforms, as well as conversation prompts to help families begin talking about online safety. It also contains pointers to further advice and support.

Both sets of guidance can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-council-for-child-internet-safety-ukccis