The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Media
Established in March 2018, the group works to drive policy change that maximises the positives and mitigates the negatives of social media.
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UK policy work
We operate independently of government, but have a good working relationship with the Home Office, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education.
Our CEO, Susie Hargreaves OBE, is an Executive Board Member of the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS). The IWF also secured Core Participant status to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) as part of the inquiry’s investigation into child sexual abuse and the internet.
Recent Policy Briefs
- Backbench business debate - Report of the Draft Online Safety Bill Committee
- Draft Online Safety Bill briefing May 2021
- IWF briefing on the Full Government response to the Online Harms Consultation December 2020
- IWF briefing on Regulation and the Prevention of Online Harms Backbench Business Debate November 2020
- UK Safer Internet Centre: Online Harms Westminster Hall Debate October 2020
- Executive Summary of the IWF’s response to the Online Harms White Paper March 2019
- IWF position on the Online Harms White Paper January 2019
Consultations
Wherever relevant, we share our expertise, good practice and partnership approach with organisations, policymakers, hotlines, Government, law enforcement and others.
As part of this, the IWF often responds to consultations with relevance to our work. Our submissions to recent consultations include:
- IWF response to the Pre-Legislative Scrutiny Committee of the Draft Online Safety Bill
- IWF response to the UK Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy
- IWF response to Mozilla DoH consultation
- IWF response to the Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry on the Home Office preparedness for and response to COVID-19
- IWF response to the Online Harms White Paper
- IWF response to the Home Affairs Select Committee Report: Future of Policing
- IWF Evidence Session to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Social Media & Screen Use
- IWF response to the House of Lords Communications Select Committee Inquiry into the future of internet regulation
- IWF response to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Internet Safety Strategy Consultation
- IWF response to the Home Office's consultation on Policing in the 21st Century: Reconnecting police and the people - September 2010
- IWF response to Ofcom’s consultation on Traffic Management and 'Net Neutrality' - September 2010
- APPG on Communications Inquiry on Internet Traffic - May 2009
- Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee inquiry into harmful content on the internet and in video games – July 2008
- Byron Review – call for evidence - December 2007
- Government consultation on the Possession of Non-Photographic Visual Depictions of Child Sexual Abuse- 2007
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Media
Since November 2020, the IWF (as part of the UK Safer Internet Centre) has been providing the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Social Media. This APPG works to drive policy change that maximises the positives and mitigates the negatives of social media.
The APPG has an ongoing inquiry into “Selfie Generation: what’s behind the rise in self-generated indecent images of children online?” and has received written and oral evidence from academics, child protection experts, law enforcement, tech companies and individuals.
View the APPG's report here.
To contact the IWF Policy and Public Affairs team, please email Michael Tunks, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager, [email protected] or Abigail Fedorovsky, Policy and Public Affairs Assistant, [email protected].