Motion: Protecting Children from Harmful Content Online

Protecting Children from Harmful Content Online

Lodged by Stewart Maxwell Members' Business Motion 28 supporters

The motion

That the Parliament is concerned about children and vulnerable people accessing potentially harmful content online, including in the West Scotland region; welcomes the announcement that the UK music industry, Vevo and YouTube have agreed that the pilot to age-rate music videos by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) should now be made permanent for videos produced by artists signed to major UK labels and that independent labels will also take part in this voluntary initiative; notes that, according to BBFC-commissioned research, 78% of parents value age ratings on online music videos and 75% would like online channels to link those ratings to parental controls; notes calls for US and other non-UK record labels to voluntarily submit online music videos for classification by the BBFC and also for more online platforms to carry prominent age ratings and content advice for music videos classified by the BBFC and link those age ratings to parental controls; welcomes the decision of Scotland’s four mobile networks, EE, O2, Three and Vodafone, to place mobile content that would be age-rated 18 or R18 by the BBFC behind access controls and internet filters to restrict access to that content by people under 18, and further notes calls for similar protections to be put in place for public WiFi and home broadband to ensure consistency of approach in protecting children from harmful content online.

Supporters (28)