Protecting the vulnerable online

The government is bringing together social media companies with suicide prevention experts from the Samaritans to better protect vulnerable people from harmful content online.

Key facts: 

  • During this week's summit with tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Snapchat, the Health Secretary asked that these companies: 
  • Commit to working with suicide and self-harm prevention experts from the Samaritans so together, they can develop new ways of identifying and tackling harmful online content. 
  • Take a stronger approach to preventing the spread anti-vaccination messages online, following recent statistics which show measles cases have quadrupled in the UK in just one year. 
  • Use the most cutting-edge technology available to protect vulnerable users. 

Why this matters: 

 We are building on our efforts to tackle Online Harms, making the UK the safest place in the world to be online – which is why we have sent a loud and clear message to social media companies that this is no longer a matter of choice: they need to clean up their act.

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