Starmer gives tech firms ultimatum to block explicit images on children’s phones

Apple and Google have been given until September to install software that blocks explicit images on children’s mobile phones or face legislation enforcing its requirement, Keir Starmer said on Monday.The prime minister said tech companies must activate nudity-detection algorithms or other technical solutions on smartphones and tablets to prevent users taking photos or sharing images of genitalia unless they are verified as adults.If businesses do not comply within three months, legislation will be brought forward requiring the protection to be added to all phones and tablets sold in the UK.The announcement comes a month after Jess Phillips quit her post as safeguarding minister claiming that Starmer had failed to introduce changes to halt the ability of children in the UK to take naked images of themselves.Speaking at London Tech Week on Monday, Starmer said the plan would mean that the UK would become the first country in the world to make it impossible for children to take, share or view nude images.“For too long, people have been told that [children sharing explicit images] is simply the price of modern tech – that nothing could be done. That government is powerless. That parents just have to accept it.“I reject that completely because tech should adapt to the needs of society, not the other way round. If we are serious about unlocking the opportunities that tech can bring then we must also be serious about preventing those who want to abuse it – the online predators.“That is why today, I am calling on tech companies operating in this country to introduce vice controls that prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images. Because this is not an impossible challenge.“If they choose not, then we will act and we will change the law,” he said.Sexual predators will be prevented from being able to exploit and abuse victims through their devices, and children stopped from being able to access pornography, the Home Office said.Adults will still be able to take, share or view nude content through an age verification process.It comes amid concerns about the risk of children being exposed to grooming by adults and to pornography at a young age.Ministers have praised companies such as HMD Global, which has introduced a device aimed at children that contains software which automatically detects and blocks explicit imagery.The software, called HarmBlock, is produced by a UK company SafeToNet. While Apple and Google’s Android mobile operating system have developed sensitive content warnings for younger users, these can be overridden by entering a passcode.The UK’s push comes after Australia recently set out a policy encouraging companies to develop operating systems with settings for “detecting nudity and employing techniques such as blurring or warning message”.The proposal is designed to sit alongside the Online Safety Act, which requires companies to have processes for removing material that is illegal or harmful to children.Neither Apple nor Google offers a nudity-blocking system that works across the entire operating system, including apps developed by other companies that users download and run on their phones, such as WhatsApp or Telegram.There is growing speculation that Starmer will also opt for a so-called “Australian-plus” model with a ban on a wider range of sites combined with restrictions on “addictive” features and tougher age checks to prevent children circumventing the rules.Starmer is said to be carving out policies to provide him with a “legacy” as he faces the threat of a leadership challenge from Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor who is favourite to secure a return to parliament in the Makerfield byelection on 18 June.Phillips said in her resignation letter in May: “Over a year ago I presented solutions, long worked on by brilliant civil servants, that would end the ability for children in the UK to take naked images of themselves.“We could stop this abuse. It has taken me a year to get you to agree to even threaten to legislate in this space. Not legislate, just threaten. This is the definition of incremental change. Nothing bold about it. The announcement was meant to be in March.”