Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to protect (a) children and (b) young people from online sextortion.

To tackle the growing threat of sextortion, the Home Office is funding law enforcement capabilities to combat this crime, such as through investment in the National Crime Agency (NCA), who use their unique capabilities to disrupt the highest harm offenders, including those based overseas. The NCA is also a member of the Virtual Global Taskforce, which is an international alliance of 15 dedicated law enforcement agencies working together to tackle the global threat from all forms of child sexual abuse.

The Home Office also invests in a network of Undercover Online Officers in Regional Organised Crime Units to disrupt high harm offenders, including those seeking to groom or otherwise manipulate children into sharing sexual images.

The Online Safety Act protects citizens – especially children – from abuse and harm and applies to companies that provide user-to-user services and search services. It places robust duties on tech companies to prevent and swiftly remove illegal content, including child sexual abuse material, and to take proactive steps to protect children from harm. The strongest protections in the Act are for children.

Where a company fails to protect users, Ofcom will have a suite of enforcement powers such as issuing fines of up to 10% of their revenue and business disruption measures including blocking companies.

The Government will continue to engage with social media companies to make it clear they must act and implement robust detection measures to prevent their platforms being safe spaces for criminals.

This Government will continue to proactively review legislation, and we will not hesitate to legislate further to ensure the protection of children online.