Keir Starmer said on Monday that he would pass a law if tech companies do not, within three months, block children from using their devices to take nude pictures of themselves. The warning puts Apple, Google and other phone makers on notice that the government wants changes to default settings and built-in features, not just promises from firms.
The announcement came during London Tech Week, where Starmer used a high-profile stage to turn an online safety fight into a deadline. The government wants companies such as Apple and Google to switch on default age verification on devices and use built-in features or new technical tools to detect and block nude images for children who have not passed those checks. If firms do not comply, the government says they could face fines and tech bosses could face criminal liability.
For readers following the debate over child safety online, that is why the story has landed now. It is not another consultation or code of practice. It is a three-month ultimatum aimed at how devices work before a child even reaches an app, and it lands as ministers try to show they are moving faster on online abuse and nude-image sharing.
But the political fight over the pace of that response is already under way. Safeguarding Minister Natalie Fleet spent the day touring broadcast studios to insist Starmer was not dithering, while in the Commons the government faced claims that the threat to fine tech firms was too little, too late. Munira Wilson said the prime minister should legislate for a ban rather than relying on threats, and Jess Phillips sharpened the criticism by pointing to her resignation letter last month, where she said it had taken her a year to get Starmer to agree to even threaten to legislate in this area.
No. 10 is presenting the move as decisive action, but the argument around it suggests the government is still trying to prove that a warning will produce the result a law has not yet secured. If Apple, Google and the others do not move in the next three months, the fight shifts from threat to statute, and this time Starmer will have to decide whether he is prepared to force the change he has now promised.
