Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act 2023 in tackling harmful content on social media platforms.

Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope services must protect all users from illegal content, and children from age-inappropriate content. The Act’s illegal content duties have been in force since March 2025, and the child safety duties since July 2025.

Ofcom, the independent regulator, conducts regular surveys to track the experiences of users on regulated services. The next outputs of this work are due to be published in Autumn 2025. DSIT is also working with Ofcom to develop a longer-term monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the Act’s impact.