Protection of Online
Users
(Aylesbury) (Con)
What steps his Department is taking to (a) protect users online
and (b) improve the accountability of technology companies.
The Minister for Digital and Culture ()
Last week we published the Online Safety Bill. For the first
time, tech companies will be held accountable by an independent
regulator for keeping their users, especially children, safe from
harmful content and behaviours online. If companies fail to keep
their users safe, Ofcom will have the power to fine companies up
to £18 million or 10% of their annual global turnover.
I thank the Minister for her answer. This is an incredibly
important policy area. As well as the online harms that she
mentioned, an increasing number of people throughout the country,
including in my Aylesbury constituency, sadly fall prey to online
financial scams, which can not only have a profound impact on
somebody’s financial status but result in great anxiety for
victims. Will the Minister outline the action her Department will
take to ensure that technology companies really step up and play
a full part, alongside the police and banks, to protect us all
from online fraud and identity theft?
I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue, which he is
absolutely right to do, because we know that scams of this kind
can ruin lives and, as he says, a growing number of people are
encountering them online. The Government are approaching the
issue in three ways. First, we are working closely with law
enforcement, technology companies and banks to tackle online
fraud at source. That work is led by the Home Office, which is
currently developing an ambitious fraud action plan, on which we
have been providing support. The Online Safety Bill that we
published last week will tackle any kind of fraud that is
facilitated through user-generated content. On top of that, we
are consulting on tougher advertising regulation and will be
doing that later this year.
