All smartphones and tablets would be blocked from viewing or creating child sexual abuse material, under proposals to be put to parliament by a powerful cross-party alliance of peers and MPs.
Technology companies would be required under the plans to install software on all devices sold in Britain to prevent people being able to see explicit images of children. Images and videos of child sexual abuse, including AI-generated material, would be instantly blurred, and livestreaming of abuse would become impossible.
The campaign is being spearheaded in the House of Lords by the Conservative peer and former education minister John Nash, who successfully championed a ban on social media for under-16s. The Labour former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who resigned over the failure of Keir Starmer’s government to act quickly enough to block nudity on children’s phones, is leading the charge in the House of Commons.
