UK orders Apple, Google to block nudes on devices by September

The UK ordered Apple and Google on June 8 to add device-level nudity blocking to every smartphone and tablet sold in the country within three months or face fines and potential criminal charges for executives. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the requirement at London Tech Week and said, “If they choose not to, then we will act and change the law.”

Ministers require protections that operate across an entire device without collecting user data. The government framed the deadline as a demand for system-wide controls that reach beyond existing app-level safeguards and said it will legislate if companies do not comply.

Apple currently offers Communication Safety for child accounts, which warns when images or videos containing nudity are sent or received across Messages, AirDrop, FaceTime and other Apple services; the company updated the feature at its developer conference in early June. Apple has also said it will require some UK users to verify their age to access certain phone features, using government ID, payment information or other verification methods depending on the region.

Google provides Sensitive Content Warnings that blur sensitive images in Google Messages for supervised accounts and signed-in teens. That tool covers images but not video and applies to Google Messages rather than every app on a phone.

Government officials said current features leave major parts of devices unprotected, including the camera app, third-party messaging services, web search and the photo library. Apps such as WhatsApp and Signal and content accessed via browsers can sit outside existing safeguards, officials noted.

The requirement that any new tool operate “without threatening privacy or collecting any data” was included in government guidance. Privacy groups and digital rights advocates warned that age-verification systems and the need for compliance evidence can create new data collection and security risks. If executives could face personal liability for non-compliance, regulators may seek records or audit trails showing how systems performed, which could require storing metadata.

The Home Office pointed to SafeToNet’s HarmBlock as an example of on-device analysis that, according to the department, can filter content locally without sending images to a server. HarmBlock’s source code is not public.

Campaign group Big Brother Watch warned that mandatory ID checks for adults could mean “the death of anonymity and internet privacy.” The encrypted messaging app Signal described on-device promises as “cold comfort,” arguing the scope of any scanning system would ultimately be set by government policy rather than technical limits and could expand over time.

Apple previously proposed on-device matching of known child sexual abuse material in 2021 and paused that plan after privacy concerns were raised. That episode has been cited in the current debate over device scanning and data protection.

Child protection groups and experts point to immediate steps parents can take. They recommend enabling Apple’s Communication Safety for child accounts and Google’s Sensitive Content Warnings for supervised Android Messages, using unique passwords, turning on multi-factor authentication, and talking with children about coerced sharing. The Internet Watch Foundation reported that 91% of the cases it assessed in 2024 involved self-generated images sent by children.

With the early September deadline approaching, Apple and Google must either produce a technical solution that meets ministers’ requirements or prompt Parliament to pass laws mandating the protections.