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Written question asked by Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 22 June 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 24 June 2026. It was answered by Kanishka Narayan (Labour) on Tuesday, 30 June 2026 on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Social Media: Artificial Intelligence

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, in what way he plans to ensure that women and girls are protected from AI harms on social media sites.

Answer

Protecting women and girls online, including from AI-enabled harms, is a top priority for this Government as we work to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. The Online Safety Act places clear legal duties on platforms to proactively tackle illegal content which disproportionately affects women and girls, including harassment, stalking, and intimate image abuse, and to remove it swiftly where it occurs. This includes content which has been generated using AI, such as non-consensual sexual deepfakes.

We continue to tackle emerging AI harms to women and girls and have criminalised the creation of non-consensual sexual deepfakes, banned nudification apps, and taken powers to bring unregulated chatbots into scope of the Online Safety Act. We have also, through the Crime and Policing Act, introduced a new duty requiring platforms and search services to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid report. Ofcom has also introduced new hash-matching measures to help deliver our ambition that NCII victims only have to report the content once.

In our progress statement following the 'Growing up in the online world’ consultation, we have also announced that we will prevent under 18s from accessing AI chatbot services that primarily offer sexualised content and features that enable sexually explicit or sexual role-playing content.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
11941
Session
2026-27
Subjects
Women Protection Safety Artificial intelligence Social media
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk