Clause 10 - Function of promoting media literacy
Communications Bill
3:30 pm
Mr John Whittingdale (Maldon and East Chelmsford, Conservative)
No amendments have been tabled on this clause, but it will be worth while to detain the Committee briefly because the clause covers an interesting area—the duty of Ofcom to promote media literacy. We would like to explore that important issue with the Minister. What precisely does he have in mind for Ofcom and how he will bring it about? It is almost undeniable that a great deal of media illiteracy exists. I hope that something similar is not true of this Committee—although one occasionally has a faint suspicion.
Earlier, we discussed amendments relating to the needs of disabled people. We wondered how technology—for example, closed caption subtitling—could help them. It is pretty complicated to access such technology and we must help people to understand how to do so. Some elderly people may not have a great grasp of the most recent technological developments.
Later, when we discuss content, I suspect that we will discuss whether material is offensive or distasteful, and how best we can prevent children from accessing such material. Technology exists for that. I use parental locks—I strongly recommend others to use them—on, for example, set top decoders. PINs are also effective in ensuring that children cannot access material that may be suitable for adults but unsuitable for very young people. However, if we are to allow choice and not censor material that is suitable for adults, we must ensure that parents understand how best to take advantage of technology to use locks or other devices. There is a genuine need to increase understanding of the capabilities of technology in the area of media literacy.
I do not oppose clause 10 in any way, but I would be interested to know how the Minister sees Ofcom going about its function. Will a specific area of its budget be reserved for this purpose? How will Ofcom
achieve these objectives, which I think we would all support?
Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) rose—