Context
Online pornography sites contain content that depicts illegal activity such as child sexual abuse material, with tags like 'homework', 'pigtails', 'teen' and 'barely legal'. This content is driving demand for child sexual abuse material according to child protection experts.
Question
What steps his Department is taking to ensure the regulation of online pornography content is aligned with offline regulation. Online pornography sites are awash with illegal content such as videos depicting incest, which sexualises children and drives demand for child sexual abuse material. Does the Secretary of State agree that urgent action is needed following the pornography review to equalise online and offline content regulation?
Answer from The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Peter Kyle)
Of course, I agree with my hon. Friend. Additional powers will be coming online via the Online Safety Act 2023. I wish that those powers had come into force earlier; that was a legacy of the previous Government. We have done everything we can to expedite those powers as quickly as we can. From March onwards, there will be powers that make extreme pornography illegal and that require sites to protect children from accessing pornography. Child sexual abuse and its related activity should not be called pornography—it is rape, and it should be called what it is—and we should do everything we can to keep it offline.
Not addressed: The Secretary of State did not specify when the powers will come into effect or provide concrete steps being taken currently.
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