Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Meta's age assurance methodology for teenage accounts on Instagram.

Under the Online Safety Act, services likely to be accessed by children are required to risk assess their service and provide safety measures, such as highly effective age assurance to prevent children from encountering content including pornography and protect them from other harmful content, including violent content.

Ofcom has published guidance on what constitutes highly effective age assurance. From July, once the child safety regime is in effect, Ofcom will be able to assess services’ compliance with the duties and take enforcement action against those failing to comply.