The UK government plans to introduce a new law requiring technology companies to prevent children from taking or sharing nude images on mobile devices.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told MPs that Apple and Google had made “significant commitments”, but said their current proposals did not meet the scale of the problem. Ministers will seek to legislate “as soon as they can”, although the government may reassess its plans if companies develop and implement effective solutions sooner.

Proposed measures

Apple and Google, which develop the operating systems used by most smartphones in the UK, were given three months in June to block access to nude images on devices used by under-18s.

The government said its draft legislation would require technology firms to introduce protections at device level. Providers of apps used by children would also be expected to implement similar blocks on nude imagery.

Nandy said this approach would target the wider technology ecosystem through which children may be abused or groomed online.

Apple said it launched its Communication Safety feature in 2021 to help prevent children from seeing or sharing images containing nudity. The company said it had continued to expand the feature and had shared plans with UK officials to strengthen it and other safety tools.

Google said it was an industry leader in tackling non-consensual intimate imagery and advancing child safety across its products. The company said it had made progress and remained committed to keeping children safe online.

Calls for action

The proposals have been welcomed by organisations and charities calling for stronger technical measures to prevent children from seeing, capturing and sharing nude images on smartphones.

The NSPCC said content filmed on a child’s device could be the starting point for grooming, sexual extortion and other forms of online child sexual abuse. UK police chiefs have previously described restricting children’s ability to take or share nude images as an important step in preventing sextortion.

Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the NSPCC, called the legislative plans necessary after technology companies failed to meet the three-month deadline. He said the government should act swiftly and put the measures into law without further delay.

Andy Burrows of the Molly Rose Foundation said the proposals were fundamental to the objective, but urged ministers to deliver robust legislation promptly.

The measures would not prevent adults from accessing nude imagery on their devices. However, implementing protections for children may require companies to establish whether a device or app user is an adult or a child.

The Open Rights Group has previously warned that this could lead to digital identity checks for adults and the default scanning of private images. The government has denied that the proposed changes would amount to surveillance.