Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle (a) the blackout challenge and (b) other physically harmful trends on social media.

Under the Online Safety Act, services need to put in place protections for all users from content which is illegal. There are additional protections for children from harmful content, including content that encourages or promotes dangerous stunts or challenges, serious violence or injury, and content encouraging ingestion, inhalation or exposure to harmful substances.

Ofcom’s guidance states that asphyxiation challenges like the ''blackout challenge’’ are examples of dangerous stunt and challenge content. Therefore, services likely to be accessed by children are required to protect children from this content by taking measures such as filtering out harmful content from children's algorithmic feeds.