{"id":764660,"date":"2026-09-09T04:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T04:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764660\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T04:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T04:14:16","slug":"uk-to-force-apple-and-google-to-block-explicit-images-on-childrens-smartphones-internet-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764660\/","title":{"rendered":"UK to force Apple and Google to block explicit images on children\u2019s smartphones | Internet safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple and Google<\/a> will be forced to block explicit images on children\u2019s smartphones by law in the UK after talks failed to produce a breakthrough, the government has said.<\/p>\n

The legislation commitment puts ministers on a collision course with two of the biggest players in Silicon Valley, months after the government announced a social media ban for under-16s.<\/p>\n

Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, said the government would start work on an act of parliament to stop under-18s taking, sharing or viewing nude images on their devices.<\/p>\n

Talks with Google and Apple<\/a>, whose operating systems dominate the smartphone market, had not reached agreement as a three-month deadline passed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Nandy told the House of Commons the tech companies could still reach a deal but it was \u201calmost certain\u201d groundbreaking legislation would be required.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, technology companies have failed to protect children from some of the worst harms,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd to be frank, I am not prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt that progress will continue at the pace that we need it to, while harm is being done now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister, Andy Burnham, said the protections would be \u201cbuilt into the device and switched on by default\u201d, and tech companies will be required to verify an adult user\u2019s age before they are allowed to take, view or send nude images. The government also wants the restrictions to apply to apps used by children, which will require further legislation.<\/p>\n

Nandy said: \u201cThis will ensure that the whole ecosystem changes, tackling the means by which children are most often abused or groomed in the online world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources familiar with progress in the talks have said there iwas a desire to reach a deal on both sides but significant hurdles remained including privacy concerns on the tech side.<\/p>\n

Jess Phillips, the Labour MP and former safeguarding minister, said the legislation would stop the UK from producing self-generated child sexual abuse material, where children are duped or groomed into sharing explicit images of themselves.<\/p>\n

However, she urged the government to ensure the UK was followed by other countries and to make sure that \u201cwhile we lead the world, we\u2019re not standing alone for too long\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hannah Swirsky, head of policy at the Internet Watch Foundation, which monitors the online spread of child sexual abuse material [CSAM], said: \u201cIt is deeply disappointing that tech firms have failed to act in full, but we are pleased that the government is now taking decisive legislative action to keep children safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year the IWF said a quarter of the images or videos of CSAM<\/a> it recorded were self-generated, representing more than 140,000 pieces of content over a 12-month period.<\/p>\n

One of Keir Starmer\u2019s final acts as prime minister<\/a> was to give Apple and Google three months to stop under-18s from generating, sending or seeing nude images on their devices, by activating built-in features on the hardware or other technological solutions. Between them, Apple\u2019s iOS and Google\u2019s Android smartphone operating systems dominate the mobile phone market.<\/p>\n

The nudity block implies the use of \u201cclient-side scanning\u201d, where content is scanned by software on the device before it is encrypted or sent.<\/p>\n

\u201cClient-side scanning is the least evil approach,\u201d said Lukasz Olejnik, a visiting senior research fellow in cybersecurity and privacy at Kings College London. \u201cThat said, it does put in place an infrastructure to scan content of messages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Privacy campaigners have also warned that adults would have to verify their age before switching off any nudity-blocking features. In June, the government said the proposals would \u201cnot affect the use of devices owned and used by adults who verify their age\u201d.<\/p>\n

Google said it was \u201cpleased to have made progress\u201d in talks with the government and was \u201cfully committed\u201d to working with legislators, experts, app developers and device manufacturers to \u201ckeep children safe, while also protecting privacy and access to information\u201d.<\/p>\n

An Apple spokesperson said the company was preparing to strengthen its \u201ccommunication safety\u201d feature, which warns children when they are receiving or sending nude images and videos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe share the UK\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple and Google will be forced to block explicit images on children\u2019s smartphones by law in the UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-764660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}