The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has announced that the Government intends to bring forward new legislation to force tech companies to take further action to prevent children from encountering nude images online or on their devices.
The announcement comes after the Government issued a warning earlier this year (discussed here) that if companies did not “activate built-in features or implement technical solutions on smartphones and tablets to detect and block nude images for children” within three months, it would introduce legislation requiring them to do so.
Those three months have now passed and, despite the Secretary of State acknowledging that some companies have “developed meaningful changes”, she has concluded not enough has been achieved. Therefore, the Government has followed through on its plans and announced that it will introduce primary legislation requiring that:
- Major tech platforms build “device-level protections” for children to prevent them from encountering nude images;
- App developers prevent children from accessing or sharing nudity.
The precise scope of the new requirements remains to be seen, but the Government is clear that it intends to act quickly, stating that it will introduce the legislation to Parliament as soon as possible.
Addressing the House of Commons, the Secretary of State said that “for too long, technology companies have failed to protect children from some of the worst harms. And 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…The message we are sending to tech companies is clear – planning must now become implementation, and progress must translate into protections that make a real difference in children’s lives”.