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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to (a) ensure that providers of online platforms consider how their products can be used to perpetrate online abuse and (b) place a responsibility on those providers to embed safety by design in their technology.

A safety by design approach will be crucial for compliance with future online safety legislation. The Online Safety Bill will help ensure companies effectively manage the risk that their services present; this includes how they may be used to perpetrate online abuse. All companies in scope will be required to complete a risk assessment. Companies will need to understand the risks that their design choices present to users and put in place appropriate mitigation actions. The Government is also taking action now, in advance of the legislation coming into force, to ensure that online platforms are designed to be safe for users. We published voluntary safety by design guidance in June this year, which sets out best practice platform design for user safety.