Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act 2023 for reducing children’s exposure to harmful online content.

Since the child safety duties came into force in July, the way children experience the internet has fundamentally changed. Services are now required to protect children from both illegal and legal but nonetheless harmful content and provide age-appropriate experiences for them.

Ofcom has robust enforcement powers for platforms failing to fulfil these duties and is already exercising these powers.

Over 6000 services have implemented highly effective age assurance to prevent children from seeing the most harmful types of content; improving protections for millions of children online.