Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Online Harm: Women and Girls

Thursday 26 May 2022 · 5 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 4 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The Online Safety Bill includes strong protections for women and girls, designating crimes like harassment, stalking, revenge porn, and extreme porn as priority offences.
  • Social media companies can face fines up to 10% of global revenue for breaching their duties to protect young girls and women.
  • The Minister is willing to meet to discuss amending the Bill to address screen-sharing scams as highlighted by the FCA.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Catherine West Lab Hornsey and Friern Barnet
Women & Equalities
Context

The Online Safety Bill is in Committee. Catherine West raises concerns about the level of protection from online harm for women and girls.

Question

What assessment has been made of the potential impact of provisions in the Online Safety Bill on the level of protection from online harm and abuse for women and girls?

Answer from Chris Philp

The Online Safety Bill rightly has strong protections for women and girls, with schedule 7 designating crimes such as harassment, stalking, revenge porn, and extreme porn as priority offences. These require social media firms to proactively prevent such content from appearing online.

Answered
Was this summary accurate? Tell us

How accurate was this summary? (1 = poor, 5 = spot on)

Get updates like this by email
Q2 Catherine West Lab Hornsey and Friern Barnet
Standards & Ethics Mental Health
Context

The MP asks about penalties for social media firms that fail in their duty to protect young girls from online harms, highlighting a rise in eating disorders and suicidal thoughts.

Question

Will the Minister consider what penalties can be brought against social media companies that fail in their duty to protect young girls and women given the increase in eating disorders and suicidal thoughts? What action will the Minister take on this issue?

Answer from Chris Philp

Fines up to 10% of global revenue can be imposed if social media companies breach their duties. In extreme cases, persistent failure could result in denial of service provisions, where platforms' ability to transmit into the UK could be disconnected.

Answered
Was this summary accurate? Tell us

How accurate was this summary? (1 = poor, 5 = spot on)

Get updates like this by email
Q3 Andrew Bridgen Con
Culture, Media & Sport
Context

The MP asks about the recent Financial Conduct Authority warning of an 86% increase in screen-sharing scams over the past year.

Question

Will the Minister consider amending the Online Safety Bill to address the significant rise in screen-sharing scams as highlighted by the FCA?

Answer from Chris Philp

Yes, the Minister is willing to meet with Andrew Bridgen to discuss amending the Bill for screen-sharing scams. The Bill includes advertisements that promote fraud in its scope of duties.

Answered
Was this summary accurate? Tell us

How accurate was this summary? (1 = poor, 5 = spot on)

Get updates like this by email
Q4 Alex Davies-Jones Lab Pontypridd
Women & Equalities
Context

The MP questions why violence against women and girls is not explicitly named as a priority offence in the Online Safety Bill despite widespread support for tackling this issue.

Question

Why have the Government failed to tackle violence against women and girls online by including misogyny as a priority offence in the Bill?

Answer from Chris Philp

I strongly dispute that the bill does not protect women and girls. New cyber-flashing offences have been created, and crimes like harassment, stalking, and revenge porn are designated as priority offences.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Alex Davies-Jones' specific ask on including misogyny in the Bill was not directly addressed.

Was this summary accurate? Tell us

How accurate was this summary? (1 = poor, 5 = spot on)

Get updates like this by email
Q5 David Johnston
Culture, Media & Sport
Context

The MP welcomes the bill's efforts to protect people from harm but expresses concern about unintentionally restricting freedom of speech.

Question

Will my hon. Friend reassure me that we will ensure we stay on the right side of protecting freedom of speech and not restrict opinions by conflating them with actual harms?

Answer from Chris Philp

Yes, I can categorically give that assurance. The Bill has a provision for free speech, expressly providing social media firms to have regard to it without requiring censorship of legal and harmless content.

Answered
Was this summary accurate? Tell us

How accurate was this summary? (1 = poor, 5 = spot on)

Get updates like this by email