Overview
- According to the Financial Times, the UK will request Apple and Google bake nudity-detection into iOS and Android to stop users from taking, sharing, or viewing explicit images unless they verify they are adults via biometrics or official ID.
- The plan targets smartphones first and could later reach desktops, with officials having considered but not pursuing a sales mandate for devices in the UK at this stage.
- Apple’s Communication Safety and Google’s parental controls provide warnings in select apps, but neither company currently blocks explicit imagery system-wide across third-party services.
- Privacy and civil-liberties groups are expected to question device-wide scanning and age checks, and past UK web age gates were often bypassed using fake IDs and VPNs.
- Aylo, Pornhub’s parent, has urged major platforms to adopt device-level age verification, and people familiar with the plan say the UK proposals are set to be unveiled in the coming days.