The UK Will Become The First Country To Stop Children From Taking, Sharing Or Receiving Nudes On Their Phone
The government said the plan is aimed at tackling online grooming, sextortion and child sexual abuse.
The UK will become the first country in the world to stop children from taking, sharing or viewing nude images on their phones and tablets.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the plan at London Tech Week on June 8, giving big tech companies, including Apple and Google, three months to introduce built-in features on devices or the government will change the law.
The plans require both new and existing smartphones and tablets used by children to detect and block nude images across the whole device, rather than only inside individual apps.
That means the restrictions could apply to cameras, saved photos, messaging apps, third-party apps and search functions.
Adults would still be able to access nude content, but only after verifying their age.
The government said the plan is aimed at tackling online grooming, sextortion and child sexual abuse, especially cases where children are pressured into creating sexual images of themselves.
Child sex abuse referrals are made about every five minutes, and 91% of child abuse images are self-generated, Reuters reported..
If companies do not act within three months, the government said it will change the law to include fines, with criminal liability for tech bosses considered as a last resort.
The proposal has been welcomed by some child safety campaigners, but it has also triggered privacy concerns.
Critics have described it as government-mandated spyware, arguing that even if nude-image detection happens on the device, it would still require phones and tablets to scan private images by default.
Big Brother Watch said the plan would introduce “mandatory ID checks to use mobile phones,” warning it could force millions of adults to prove their age to access device functions.
Its director, Silkie Carlo, also told the Guardian the policy could threaten anonymity and internet privacy.
VPN company Mullvad has warned more broadly that age verification laws are spreading under the banner of child safety, but could make anonymous access to online services harder.
Privacy advocates also argue that once phones are able to scan images because the government requires it, future governments could try to expand the same system to other types of content.
Apple already has a Communication Safety tool that can detect nudity in some apps and services. Apple says the detection happens on the device and that it does not receive the images.
A week later on Monday, June 15, Starmer also announced that it will ban social media for children under 16.
The ban, which will come into effect in spring 2027, follows the same model as Australia, which became the world's first to introduce a nationwide ban on social media for children under 16 in December 2025.
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