Government is taking a range of measures to protect children and young people from harmful online content.

Through the Digital Economy Act 2017, the government is introducing a requirement for commercial providers of online pornography to have robust age verification controls in place to prevent children and young people under 18 from accessing pornographic material.

In addition we have worked with Internet Service Providers to introduce a rigorous and comprehensive system of family-friendly content filtering, through which parents can help protect their children from viewing harmful content over home broadband networks.

Through the UK Council for Child Internet Safety we have produced a practical guide for providers of social media and interactive services, in which we set out best practices for preventing children from encountering harmful content.

Furthermore, the Data Protection Act 2018 introduced a new requirement for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to produce a statutory code of practice on age-appropriate design. This code will ensure that websites and applications are designed in a way that makes clear what data is being collected on children, how this data is being used, and how both children and parents can stay in control of this data.

Nevertheless there is still more to do, which is why we will shortly be publishing an Online Harms White Paper, which will set out a range of legislative and non-legislative measures detailing how the Government will tackle the full range of online harms and set clear responsibilities for tech companies to keep UK citizens safe.

As part of the work on the Digital Charter announced in the Queen’s Speech, the Government is considering a range of options to counter internet harms. This includes an Internet Safety Strategy which will look at how we can support users so that everyone can access the benefits of the Internet safely. The Strategy, which was published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on 11 October, considers the responsibilities of companies to their users, the use of technical solutions to prevent online harms and government’s role in supporting users. The Strategy includes a public consultation on the proposed measures.

DCMS will work closely with the Department of Health and the Department for Education on their upcoming joint Children and Young People’s Mental Health Green Paper. This will be published before the end of the year and will consider both the impact of social media on mental health and the role that technology has in affecting children and young people’s mental health.