Online Abuse: Protection for Children

Question

15:07:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect children against abusive online communication.

My Lords, keeping children safe is a priority for this Government. Under the Online Safety Act, services must prevent all users encountering illegal abuse and harassment online. These duties are already in force. Services likely to be accessed by children must also protect them from content that is harmful to them, including bullying, abusive or hateful content. Ofcom recommends measures including ensuring that algorithms filter out such content, to make sure that children are protected from abusive online communications.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. A recent NSPCC report highlights how the design of social media platforms is enabling the abuse, exploitation and harassment of girls. Girls are disproportionately at risk, with only 9% of them feeling safe in online spaces. The report shows how the detailed nature of public social media accounts makes it too easy for adult strangers to pick out girls and send unsolicited messages to their accounts. Online platforms need to prevent abusive content being sent and develop a safety-by-design approach. How will the Government ensure that Ofcom is doing everything in its power to require tech companies to keep girls safe from unacceptable abuse and reaffirm the Government’s commitment to protecting girls online?

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for raising this profound issue. Ofcom’s codes go beyond current industry standards and practices. Under the Online Safety Act, companies cannot decline to take steps to protect children, including young girls, because it is too expensive or inconvenient. Protecting children is a priority. The Secretary of State has said that safety by design is one of the priorities in the statement of strategic priorities of this Government. Ofcom is required to consider those priorities in its approach to online safety regulation and will need to provide regular updates on how they are being delivered.

My Lords, why have civic groups and campaigners been told that their responses to the consultation on the children’s code will not be considered for incorporation into the code until the next round of regulations in 18 months’ time? When dealing with the rapidly evolving tech sector, does the Minister not agree that this regulatory cycle is too slow?

My Lords, as part of its statutory duties, Ofcom consulted widely on the proposals in the codes and considered responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including children and civil society organisations. Ofcom has been clear that it has reflected these views in its decision. It has made a number of changes reflecting feedback from civil society stakeholders. For example, it has substantially strengthened the expectation on services that set a minimum age—often 13.

My Lords, is the Minister not concerned that in present and projected legislation for online content the responsibility of those who provide the source of this material is out of proportion to that of the platforms? Is she satisfied that the platform operators are sufficiently responsible for what happens?

My Lords, Ofcom has to take steps, and will do, under the illegal content codes and the children’s code against those platforms and the originators of harmful or illegal content. Indeed, I am pleased to say that as Ofcom has started to roll out its responsibilities, a number of what we would regard as inappropriate app sites have been blocked or ceased to function in the UK, because they know they cannot comply with the current legislation.

My Lords, given the grave, ever-present threat to children’s mental well-being from all online activities, what updated guidance, if any, has been issued to schools on child protection?

My Lords, schools must have a policy on this issue. They are all expected to have a policy about the use of phones in schools, for example, and we have been very clear about our expectations on that. The noble Baroness is right: the issue of mental health is fundamental, and tackling excessive screen time among children is a real priority for the Government. Nevertheless, we recognise that online activities can have benefits for children, such as helping them make connections, learn new skills and gain independence. We want to get that right and make sure that children have a balanced childhood overall, with a mixture of online and offline activities, and that will be our strategy going forward.

My Lords, following on from that last question, can the Minister say what is being done to ensure that teachers have the right skills to train children in school on the dangers of online communication?

My Lords, this is already a priority. The Department for Education is making sure that teachers have the training support to tackle these issues. Teachers have been asking for this, and we have responded, because sometimes they feel that they do not have the tools to raise these issues appropriately. It is something that the department is anxious to deal with, and it is building it into future training programmes to give teachers more confidence to tackle these issues.

Given that children are among the most vulnerable users online and are often disproportionately affected by online harms, it is notable that none of the eligibility criteria of the super-complaints mechanism recognise or require expertise on online safety relating to children. Are the Government prepared to address this oversight?

My Lords, this is an issue that we of course take seriously. We want to make sure that we have the right spread of expertise reflected in the super-complaints process. We are still working that through with Ofcom, and we will be able to spell it out in more detail very soon. However, I take the noble Lord’s point, which is a good one. I will go back and check that that is indeed being addressed.

My Lords, is it not the case that too many of our regulators use consultation as a method of doing nothing? Should we not ask our regulators to be more precise, get on with the job that they have been charged with doing and protect the public?

In this case, Ofcom can do only what legislators ask it to do or provide for it to do. It is limited in that. As noble Lords will know, Ofcom has a clear remit to implement the Online Safety Act. I know that we have discussed this several times before, but I think that as we roll out the illegal codes and the children’s safety code, they will make a profound difference to what children can see. I am confident that Ofcom has the resources and wherewithal to make that step change, which we all know is necessary.

My Lords, I declare an interest in that I am an ex-trustee of the NSPCC. One of the answers that the Minister gave regarded algorithms. What experience and expertise does Ofcom have to ensure that those algorithms capture the vast majority of harm that is put on the internet and on social media, because who develops the algorithms holds the key to this?

My Lords, the noble Baroness is absolutely right. Algorithms are a real challenge, and we know some of the damage that can be done by them if they do not operate effectively. When Ofcom published its child safety codes on 24 April, it set out 40 measures that companies are expected to take to comply with the child safety duties. Measures include age-assurance technology, changing algorithms to filter out harmful content and adopting mechanisms so that parents and children can easily report harmful content. It is part of the children’s code to address algorithms. Over time, Ofcom will be able to report on how successful it has been in expecting that of platforms.

My Lords, building on the comment of my noble friend Lord Colville about the amount of time between consultation and action being taken, could the Minister draw to the attention of Ofcom the report by the NSPCC that the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, referred to? It contains no fewer than 27 specific suggestions and solutions for Ofcom to include in the illegal harms code of practice, in addition to the 40 she just named. If she could bring that to the attention of Ofcom and perhaps encourage it to get its skates on, that would be greatly appreciated.

My Lords, I am sure that Ofcom has regular dialogue with the NSPCC and other stakeholders, but I will double-check to make sure that, as the noble Lord says, the issues and recommendations are being addressed.