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Hyderabad: The United Kingdom (UK) government has announced that tech giants Google and Apple will introduce new child safety laws as the old commitments fall short. This move by the country’s government forces both tech companies to build stronger protections into their devices.
Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, made the announcement in a statement to the House of Commons. She said the government would bring in new legislation requiring major tech platforms to add device-level protections designed to stop children from taking, sharing, or viewing nude images on phones and tablets.
What have Google and Apple done so far?
Nandy told Members of Parliament (MPs) that since June, officials from her department and the Home Office have worked closely with Apple and Google, meeting senior leaders and engineers to explore new ways of protecting children online.
She said both companies have made some genuine changes at the operating system (OS) level, making it harder for children to share nude images. She also pointed to progress in blocking, rather than simply blurring, nude images on devices used by children.
Nandy referred to Apple’s move earlier this year to introduce age-checking tools built into its OS. These tools are already helping to stop children from sending or receiving nude images through iMessage or FaceTime.
However, Nandy said these steps, while positive, do not match the scale of the problem. She said the government could no longer simply trust that progress from tech companies would continue quickly enough on its own.
The scale of the problem
Nandy shared figures showing the extent of online harm faced by children. She said the Internet Watch Foundation believes 91 per cent of harmful images involving children are created by children themselves, often after being groomed or pressured by others. These images are frequently used for blackmail or sexual exploitation.
She added that around 9,000 child sexual abuse offences each year involve an online element, and the under-18s make up almost a quarter of victims of online blackmail.
New laws planned
As a result, the government confirmed it will introduce new legislation requiring major tech platforms, including Apple and Google, to build in stronger device-level protections for children. Nandy said this law would be brought to Parliament as soon as possible.
She added that if tech companies make real progress on their own before the law is passed, the government will reconsider whether legislation is still necessary. However, she made clear that the government is no longer willing to simply wait and hope for change.
Alongside device-level rules, the government also plans to require apps commonly used by children to prevent access to nude content. Nandy said the government will look into what further legislation is needed to make this happen as quickly as possible.
Nandy said these combined measures would make the UK the first country in the world to go this far in protecting children online. She said the message to tech companies, including Apple and Google, was simple: “planning must now become implementation, and progress must translate into protections that make a real difference in children’s lives.”
She ended her statement by promising that when it comes to protecting children online, the government will not be bystanders.
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