You know who’s happy about Apple and Google putting more surveillance into their operating systems? The UK’s Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy – but not happy enough to let the two corporations off the hook that easily.
Nandy has now announced that device scanning legislation is coming anyway – and it will impose even more control, this time under the guise of blocking all nudity across all UK smartphones and tablets by default, with the option to “opt out” by verifying age by showing ID.
The plan, first announced in June, was to make sure that devices used by children are “safe” – but also that “all” adults who don’t show their ID will be treated like children, i.e., have their own devices restricted in the same way.
The announcement was made in Parliament on September 8, and Nandy explained that the government had been working with Apple and Google since June to make sure that their operating systems, that dominate the market, have meaningful changes.
And those are? Apple has already started rolling out age “assurance” tied to iMessage and FaceTime, and the two companies have committed to making it harder for kids to share nude imagery, as well as to prevent such images from appearing on devices used by underaged users, without the need to “blur” them.
“These proposals are a step in the right direction,” Nandy said. “However, the truth is, Madame Deputy Speaker, they do not meet the scale of this crisis.”
Apple already has a system in place to verify age, and it is tied to its own services, such as iMessage and FaceTime. If a user is under 18 – or hasn’t confirmed their age – Apple’s “safeguards” are turned on by default, and include Web Content Filter censorship tool and Communication Safety. The latter can be switched off by confirming one’s adulthood, and Apple will accept a credit card, a supported ID, or use eligible information already on file.
But Nandy wants more. And she wants it now.
Apps that children use will also have to “prevent” them from accessing or sharing nude images. Nandy didn’t specify which apps, or how they would do it. But she did say that the government would “explore what legislation is needed to implement this commitment.”
And here she reassured the tech giants that the government would give them a chance to implement “technical solutions”.
“If platforms in scope of this draft legislation develop and implement technical solutions while our work is ongoing, we will of course reassess whether legislation is necessary,” she said.
“Put simply, we will give tech companies the chance to lead – we will not give them the chance to lag,” Nandy spelled it out.
