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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to introduce age verification for commercial pornography websites.

The strongest protections in the draft Online Safety Bill are for children. Companies in scope of the legislation will need to take steps to prevent children from accessing content which poses the highest risk of harm, including online pornography. Ofcom will set out in its codes of practice the steps companies need to take to comply with their duties under the Bill which we expect will include recommending the use of age verification technologies.

The Government recognises the concerns that have been raised about protecting children from online pornography on services which do not currently fall within the scope of the Bill. The Government is exploring ways to provide wider protections for children from online pornography.

The Joint Committee scrutinising the Bill reported with their recommendations on 14 December. We will consider the Committee’s recommendations and are committed to introducing the Bill as soon as possible.