A new law will be introduced to compel tech firms to prevent children from taking or sharing nude images on mobile devices.
Apple and Google, which develop the operating systems for most smartphones in the UK, were given a three-month deadline in June to block access to nude images on devices used by under-18s. However, culture secretary Lisa Nandy MP stated on Tuesday that current proposals "do not meet the scale of this crisis," despite "significant commitments" from both companies. Ministers intend to legislate "as soon as they can," with the possibility of reassessing if firms develop and implement solutions sooner.
Alongside blocking nudity at the device level for children's devices, the government's draft legislation will also require app providers used by children to implement 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 informed 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 further action is necessary.
An Apple spokesperson stated that its Communication Safety feature, launched in 2021 to help prevent children from seeing or sharing nudity, has had its capabilities "continued to expand." "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 that the company is an "industry leader in combating non-consensual intimate imagery and advancing child safety across our products." They added that Google is pleased to have "made progress" and remains committed to working on efforts to keep children safe online.
Calls for swift action
Organisations and charities have welcomed the government's proposals, advocating for tougher measures and technical solutions to prevent children from not only viewing but also capturing and sharing nudity on smartphones.
Ofcom data indicates that a growing proportion of younger children in the UK own smartphones, with this number increasing with age.
According to the children's charity 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.
UK police chiefs have previously stated that restricting children's devices' ability to take or share nude images would be a crucial step in preventing sextortion – crimes where a child is groomed into sharing explicit images and subsequently blackmailed.
Chris Sherwood, NSPCC chief executive, described the legislative plans as a "necessary move" after tech firms failed to meet the three-month deadline. However, he stressed that "children cannot face more delays, so Government must act swiftly and ensure these measures are enshrined in law at the earliest opportunity."
Andy Burrows of the Molly Rose Foundation commented that while the new proposals are "fundamental to their objective," it has been "a needlessly long and torturous road" to secure them. "Ministers will need to demonstrate they are committed to delivering robust legislation without further delay," Burrows added.
The government's proposals to prevent nude images from being taken and shared by children were initially part of its violence against women and girls strategy. However, it faced criticism from within its own ranks for being slow to enact it.
Its plans for a new law to enforce this measure would not prevent adults from accessing naked imagery on their devices. Nevertheless, implementing solutions to block it for children may necessitate checking whether the user of a phone or app is an adult or a child.
Online rights campaigners at the Open Rights Group have previously warned that implementing such a change would mean "every adult would be forced through a digital ID checkpoint, and private images could be scanned by default." The government has denied that the move would constitute surveillance.
