Internet: Females

(asked on 14th December 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Unsocial Spaces report, published by Refuge in October 2021, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the finding by Refuge that one in three women in the UK have suffered online abuse.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 21st December 2021

Online abuse is unacceptable and we are committed to protecting women’s safety.

Under the draft Online Safety Bill, companies in scope will need to minimise and remove illegal content including criminal online abuse targeted at women.

Major platforms will also need to address legal but harmful content for adults.These companies will have to set out clearly what legal content is acceptable on their platforms and enforce their terms and conditions consistently and transparently.

If platforms fail in their duties under the Bill, they will face tough enforcement action including fines of up to 10% of global annual qualifying turnover.

The government also asked the Law Commission to review existing legislation on harmful online communications. The Law Commission has published its final report putting forward recommendations for reform, including several new offences. The government is considering the Law Commission’s recommendations and will set out its position in due course.

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