Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing device-level protections to prevent children from sending and viewing nude or explicit images on their phones.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Protecting children from harmful content like nude or explicit images is a priority for this government. The government welcomes industry innovation in developing new ways to keep children safe online, such as nudity detection software. We will continue to build evidence about the application and effectiveness of device level controls to ensure we take the action needed to protect children.
We will continue to focus on implementing the protective measures contained within the Online Safety Act, while considering the potential benefits and impacts of this technology and others like it in parallel. Any future interventions will be proportionate and evidence based.