The UK government has said it will introduce a new law to force tech firms to prevent children from taking or sharing nude images on mobile devices.
The report indicates that the UK government has stated it will introduce a new law to force tech firms to prevent children from taking or sharing nude images on mobile devices.
It further notes that apple and Google, which develop the operating systems of most smartphones used in the UK, were given three months in June to block access to nude images on smartphones and other devices used by under-18s.
But culture secretary Lisa Nandy MP told MPs on Tuesday that despite “significant commitments” from both companies, current proposals “do not meet the scale of this crisis”.
She stated ministers would look to legislate “as soon as they can” – with the caveat it may reassess these if firms develop and implement solutions sooner.
Alongside making tech firms block nudity on devices used by children at device-level, the government stated its draft legislation would also make providers of apps used by children introduce similar blocks on nude imagery.
“This will ensure that the whole ecosystem changes, tackling the means by which children are most often abused or groomed in the online world,” Nandy said.
She told MPs that Apple and Google had already made “meaningful changes” to block nudity on smartphones used by children at the core of their systems, but more action was needed.
An Apple spokesperson stated it launched its Communication Safety feature in 2021 to help stop children from seeing or sharing imagery containing nudity – and had since “continued to expand its capabilities”.
“We share the UK’s commitment to combating exploitation and abuse online, and have shared with UK officials future plans to strengthen Communication Safety and other tools even further to help keep kids safe,” they said.
A Google spokesperson told the BBC it was an “industry leader in combating non-consensual intimate imagery and advancing child safety across our products”.
They added Google was pleased to have “made progress” and remained committed to working on efforts to keep children safe online.
The government proposals have been welcomed by organisations and charities calling for tougher measures and technical solutions to stop children from not just seeing, but also capturing and sharing nudity on smartphones.
Ofcom data suggests that a growing proportion of younger children in the UK own a smartphone – and that the number of those do increases with age.
According to children’s charity the NSPCC, content filmed on a child’s device can be the starting point for grooming, sexual extortion and other forms of online child sexual abuse.
