Online Advertising Taskforce

The Online Advertising Taskforce brings together representatives from government and the online advertising sector to work in collaboration to address illegal harms and the protection of children in relation to online advertising.

Role

The Online Advertising Taskforce supports the aims of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to improve transparency and accountability in the online advertising supply chain. It will deliver a programme of work to help address illegal advertising and minimise children being served advertising for products and services illegal to sell to them (‘in-scope harms’).

The Taskforce’s key deliverable is an action plan which sets out commitments against the 2 key objectives of the taskforce:

improving the evidence around the scale and threat of the in-scope harms
identifying ways to enhance voluntary industry initiatives or standards to tackle the drivers of the in-scope harms

The Online Advertising Taskforce progress report 2023-24 was published on 2 December 2024, and updates on the activities of the working groups against the aims set out in the Action Plan.

Meetings

The taskforce will meet at least 3 times a year. The first meeting was held on 27 July 2023. The most recent meeting was on 4 November 2024.

Members

Rt Hon Sir Chris Bryant MP, Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism(DCMS) - Chair
Mark Lund, Chairman, Advertising Standards Board of Finance (Asbof) - Deputy Chair
Emma Merry, Deputy Director of Fraud Policy, Home Office (HO)
Daniel Okubo, Deputy Director for Online Harms Programmes and International, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)
David Marshall, Deputy Director for Consumer Policy, Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
Guy Parker, Chief Executive, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
Phil Smith, Director General, Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA)
Christie Dennehy-Neil, Head of Policy & Regulatory Affairs, Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)
Konrad Shek, Public Policy and Regulation Director, Advertising Association (AA)
Richard Lindsay, Director of Legal and Public Affairs, Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA)
Sayra Tekin, Director of Legal, News Media Association (NMA)
Helen Fairfax-Wall, Chief Policy and Communications Officer, Stop Scams UK
Antony Walker, Deputy CEO, TechUK

Terms of reference