Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is considering the potential merits of mandating AI-driven, on-device detection technology to prevent livestreamed child abuse and other image-based harms including child sextortion.

This Government is clear in its commitment to protecting children from online sexual abuse. That is why we announced that the UK would become the first country in the world where it is impossible for children to take, share or view nude images on their devices. Officials have been engaging collaboratively with technology companies since summer to explore how these technical solutions can be implemented on smartphones and devices.

On 8 September, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport reiterated the Government's commitment, in a Statement to the House, to prepare primary legislation requiring companies to build on-device operating system-level protections for children. The government supports the use of technology including AI both to identify nudity, and to detect child sexual abuse more specifically.

This work will prevent predators from being able to exploit and abuse victims through children's own devices. By preventing children from taking, sharing or viewing nude images on their devices, these protections will help to prevent child sextortion before the first image is sent and reduce opportunities for offenders to coerce and exploit children online.

This will deliver on the commitment made in the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.