Speeches by Asato.

“What role should early years settings and practitioners play in developing an enjoyment of reading books among young children? We have heard a fair bit about this already, but are there any other aspects of it? What does really good practice look like in early years settings?”

“Christine, what about younger age groups in nursery settings and so forth? What do we know about the quality of reading for pleasure there?”

“Frank, your research has shown exactly what Christine said: parents and carers on higher incomes are more likely than those on lower incomes to read to their children. Why is that, in your view?”

“What role should early years settings and practitioners play in developing an enjoyment of reading books among young children? We have heard a fair bit about this already, but are there any other aspects of it? What does really good practice look like in early years settings?”

“What do we know about how widespread this good practice is? Do we know whether most early years settings have good practice in this area?”

“What are the main barriers and challenges to reading with children faced by parents and carers? How can they be supported to overcome those barriers?”

“Frank, your research has shown exactly what Christine said: parents and carers on higher incomes are more likely than those on lower incomes to read to their children. Why is that, in your view?”

“What are the main barriers and challenges to reading with children faced by parents and carers? How can they be supported to overcome those barriers?”

“What do we know about how widespread this good practice is? Do we know whether most early years settings have good practice in this area?”

“Christine, what about younger age groups in nursery settings and so forth? What do we know about the quality of reading for pleasure there?”

“We have heard a fair bit about VPNs and other workarounds being used by children to bypass age verification requirements. To what extent do you think that that is happening at scale? How should we approach the issue of VPN use?”

“Analysis by the NSPCC, which is a major child-protection charity here in the UK, looked at police data for offences of sexual communication with a child. It ranked Snapchat as clearly first among platforms being used. In 2024-25, of 2,111 offences where the police identified a platform, 40% were on Snapchat. You said j…”

“The NSPCC, as you said earlier, Rani, proposed a risk-based approach to children’s access to social media. You have explained how some of that will work in practice, but I am interested in understanding more about the effective enforcement by platforms and regulators, because we have heard quite a bit of criticism of O…”

“Andy, do you have anything to add?”

“In July last year, new age verification requirements were introduced to protect under-18s from seeing harmful content online, including hate speech, pornography and violence. How effective have those measures been in reducing children’s exposure to harmful content? Can you first focus on social media platforms and then…”

“In July last year, new age verification requirements were introduced to protect under-18s from seeing harmful content online, including hate speech, pornography and violence. How effective have those measures been in reducing children’s exposure to harmful content? Can you first focus on social media platforms and then…”

“We have heard a fair bit about VPNs and other workarounds being used by children to bypass age verification requirements. To what extent do you think that that is happening at scale? How should we approach the issue of VPN use?”

“Thank you.”

“I know plenty of colleagues have questions to ask, but may I interrupt? It is absurd to say that 15 years ago the sharing of child sexual abuse material was not a problem. It was. There were issues involving illegal child sexual abuse material right from the very design of the internet and then with social media platfo…”

“The NSPCC, as you said earlier, Rani, proposed a risk-based approach to children’s access to social media. You have explained how some of that will work in practice, but I am interested in understanding more about the effective enforcement by platforms and regulators, because we have heard quite a bit of criticism of O…”