The Government will protect young people from online harms - Lisa Nandy
In December last year, the Government published its action plan to tackle violence against women and girls. I would like to put on record my gratitude to Liz Kendall and Jess Phillips for their clear ambition and determination that the UK would become the first country in the world where it would be impossible for children to take, share or view nude images online.
In June, the Government challenged industry on a three-month timeline to work with us and set out road maps for how they would strengthen device-level protections for children with a view to preventing children from taking, sharing or viewing nude images on phones and tablets.
Since June, officials from my Department and the Home Office have overseen an unprecedented work programme with Apple and Google, working with senior leaders and engineers to explore new ways of preventing child sexual abuse and strengthening protections for children online.
Following this engagement, Apple and Google have provided the Government with significant commitments. Both companies have developed meaningful changes at operating level to make it harder for children to share nude imagery. We have seen progress in the blocking, not blurring, of nude imagery on underage devices, and this builds on significant milestones already in implementation, including Apple’s roll-out earlier this year of operating system-level age assurance and tighter safety features preventing a child from receiving or sharing nude imagery on iMessage or FaceTime. These proposals are a step in the right direction. However, the truth is that they do not meet the scale of this crisis.
Children are facing unacceptable levels of sexual harm online. They are being groomed, coerced and manipulated into creating and sharing intimate images across online services.
The Internet Watch Foundation believes that 91 per cent of these images are self-generated by children. They are used for blackmail and sexual extortion.
Each year, around 9,000 child sexual abuse offences involve an online element, with under-18s the subject of almost a quarter of online blackmail. I challenge anyone to listen to those statistics and come to the conclusion that the internet is a safe place for kids.
This is not the first time in history that new forms of technology have up-ended society, but what is unique to this moment is that the technology has been developed almost exclusively in the private sphere. I am clear that there is a central role for the Government in shaping that technology for good, not just to protect from harm - although that is a basic obligation of any Government - but to enable and empower.
When it comes to the development of technology that affects our lives, we are not neutral. In no other walk of life would we tolerate this crisis harming our children, and we will not tolerate it online.
The Government is committed to introducing primary legislation to require major tech platforms to build in device-level protections for children. Alongside the measures on devices, the Government will, as soon as possible, require that apps used by children prevent children from accessing or sharing nudity.
This will ensure that the whole ecosystem changes, tackling the means by which children are most often abused or groomed online. Put simply, we will give tech companies the chance to lead; we will not give them the chance to lag.
An abridged version of a speech by Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, in Parliament.