AGE VERIFICATION DELAY – GOVERNMENT MUST PROTECT YOUNG PEOPLE ONLINE

The Government has announced the second delay of the introduction of age verification checks to stop young people accessing harmful content online. These delays were due to “administrative oversight”. I asked the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, to guarantee there would be no further slippage in the introduction of these important safeguards and that these checks also apply to social media companies, which often fail to live up to their responsibilities to protect their users.

The protection offered by age-verification for adult sites could have a significant impact on stopping young people from viewing harmful and inappropriate content, and the Government cannot delay the implementation any longer.

Click below to watch the exchange.