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 protect children online.

Protecting children online is a priority for the government. The strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill are for children.

All companies in scope will need to take robust steps to protect children from illegal content and activity on their services. This includes proactively identifying and minimising the uploading and sharing of priority illegal content such as child sexual exploitation and abuse. Companies will also need to have effective systems and processes to quickly take down other illegal content or behaviour once it has been reported or they become aware of its presence.

Companies in scope will also need to assess whether their service is likely to be accessed by children and if so, deliver additional protections for children from harmful content or activity. If they fail to do so, they will be subject to tough enforcement action by Ofcom, the regulator.