Written question asked by Chris Ruane (Labour) on Thursday, 19 April 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 23 April 2012. It was answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative) on Monday, 30 April 2012 on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Television

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what recent assessment he has made of whether technological developments can help parents to monitor and control the use their children make of television and computers.

Answer: The Government takes child safety online extremely seriously, which is why we established the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), chaired jointly by Ministers from the Department for Education and the Home Office. UKCCIS is working with industry and others such as the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to ensure that a range of technological solutions are available to enable parents to monitor and control the content their children can access online and through internet enabled television. This work is progressing well, but we are clear that we will look at regulation if industry action does not go far or fast enough.

Secondary information