Apple and Google Miss Deadline to Block Child Nudity on Their Phones in the UK
The UK government is introducing legislation to penalize tech companies like Apple and Google for failing to implement mandatory child protection measures on their devices. The move follows a missed three-month deadline to prevent the sharing of child nudity images.
Why it matters
This represents a significant escalation in government efforts to regulate Big Tech's responsibility for user safety and content moderation.
In June, the UK government told Big Tech it had three months to make taking, viewing, or sharing images of child nudity on their devices impossible. “I expect tech firms to make that happen,” said then prime minister Keir Starmer. “But if they choose not to, then we will act and change the law.”
That deadline arrived on Tuesday, and the government says that the likes of Apple and Google have failed. As a result, they will be changing the law to introduce what the UK government claims will be world-first legislation of its kind.
While engineers from Apple and Google had been working with the government since June to make changes, “they do not meet the scale of this crisis,” Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media, and sport, told lawmakers on Tuesday as she introduced the legislation.
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