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The government’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Lisa Nandy, has revealed that they’re planning to introduce new legislation that will have the power to force the likes of Google and Apple to introduce mandatory Age Verification measures on Smartphones. The goal is the stop children sharing nude images of themselves, but it will also impact adult users.
Readers may recall that the government had been trying to reach a voluntary agreement over the issue with Apple and Google for the past few months, which follows on from their recent moves to ban children under the age of 16 from social media (here and here).
The previous Prime Minister, Kier Starmer, said at the time that he wanted Britain to be the first country in the world to make it “impossible for children to take, share or view nude images”. The statement also set a 3-month deadline to make meaningful progress, but as above, the progress has been slow and so the government are now looking at a legislated solution.