It would be so fun if Apple and Google decided they'd rather not have business in England anymore
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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Make it illegal for their parents to give them phones and computing devices that can send and receive pictures. Problem solves.
No but seriously education for both parents and children. Because while I do believe these companies play their role in how children interact online and what they interact with, I don't believe they're going to be able to stop anyone from sending something or receiving something they want to send without invasive and possibly traumatic tactics that will effect people regardless of age group.
Sure, give them 3 months to finish posting child diddy images, instead of idk, NOW. A week or two max, followed by forced liquidation.
Just allow parents to disable their child’s camera, simple?
Actually, yeah. That offloads the responsibility to the parents. I think that solution actually works...
Starmer's labour government has been an absolute shit show. Fuck the child safety act.
fuck the chi-
Oh no OH NOOO
"Fuck the child" safety act
With Labour like this, who needs Tories?
My partner sent me some dirties and the new iphone asked her if she was sure.
Creepy shit.
Maybe hold the parents accountable. Betya then they'll start caring about what their children are doing. Because yes, while there are adult perpetrators, there are also children themselves selling media they create on things like roblox servers. It's a rabbit hole.
Bonus: you don't have to invalidate everyone's right to fucking privacy.
Extra credit: you can still tax the fuck out of these trillion dollar corporations that are ruining the world.
Surveillance is not security. When fully formed Surveillance is slavery.
If one party decides to make the country an open air prison, all it does is secure political victory towards their opposition party that intend to reverse those changes. The flag might change, but the methods stay the same.
How?
That seems like a parent problem.
Yeah bro we're totally just scanning everything you send just on the off chance that a child (even though you have none and don't know any) are takes your phone and uses it to send a dick pic haha no bro don't worry it's for their safety haha
And, because Apple cares about us, they can create the Personal Pictures Privacy Pro subscription. A plan where any compromising images are kept out of public dark web Facebook groups, for the low price of $29.95 per month.
Disclaimer: Privacy and security applied by your Personal Pictures Privacy Pro plan will be generated by mid-tier cost effective AI, which itself was trained on the work of the most affordable people who told us they were privacy and security experts.
Idiot's in Ties are still Idiots.
That's not what it does
We must protect the sausages with the Sausage Safety Act!
Technology as a religion strikes again.
We can't possibly solve this problem the human way, with parent and children awareness and communication.
No, we must solve it with tech. Every problem must be solved with tech !
What a sad world.
I mean, I'm all for forcing big tech to provide better parental control tools. Because right now they provide the bare minimum that often locks you out of control... and it's a hassle to set up, maintain and manage.
Take e.g. Apple. To do any parental control you need an Apple account. Reasonable, to this point. But! To actually have any control, you need Apple devices. It isn't enough to log in through a browser, because you can't properly set rules, limits, block sites or apps, monitor communications, no, you need an iPhone or iPad or a Mac. You can't approve access requests if your child wants to go to a non-allowlisted website for e.g. school work.
Oh and if we're at allowlists and blocklists... no platform at the moment offers ANY kind of automated lists the parents can enable. They need to manually hunt things down and add them. So you either have your kid constantly pinging you to access resources, or you're constantly reviewing what they're visiting, searching for, etc., to block inappropriate content. And with how many porn websites there are out there that are specifically CLANDESTINE porn sites that at first appear generic kids games but if you go the right way, you find porn, is staggering.
Oh and one more thing. When are we punishing Google, Meta, etc., for allowing intentionally child-targeted adult themed ads and recommendations? Or did we forget how YouTube allowed incredibly disturbing content in ads and recommendations FOR KIDS (as in, literally injected into playlists meant for kids)?
You can literally do most parental controls with your home network if you know what you are doing which means those that don't will have to learn, I know how terrible a parent has to learn something to take care of their child. You can even enforce it outside the house by setting up a tunnel to your home network on a phone and making it so the phone has to use the tunnel in order to connect to the internet otherwise there is no internet access, so your network parental controls are always enforced. Hell you could make it so the phone only gets internet access when home too, to enforce even more limitations on internet access.
Yes this will require constant updating as things change and you discover workarounds and new apps are developed, but as a parent aren't you supposed to be constantly learning and adapting for your child anyways? You may even need to buy some gadgets too which again is nothing new for a parent to do to protect their child.
This shit can already be done but lazy parents and shitty governments are going to make it everyone's problem.
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I feel like all these locks and bars that people apparently believe that they need to be good parents to their children are a little... much? My mother wasn't an exemplary parent exactly so I wouldn't go down her route, but I think there's a case to be made for connecting to your child on a human level, and being their guide rather than their warden.
It makes me think of this hysterical American mindset I've bumped into over the years. I've got friends who likened me walking a couple of blocks to school as a six year old as child abuse, when they themselves have no idea how to operate a washing machine. I did experience abuse, but it was more of the slammed into the floor and choked out, than going to and from school on my own.
There's a happy medium to be made, where you can gradually introduce concepts to a child at a level that's appropriate. Fostering a connection to a child that makes them feel like they can trust in you, and safely go to you when they need it, while also having the freedom to make decisions and grow on their own.
Oh and one more thing. When are we punishing Google, Meta, etc., for allowing intentionally child-targeted adult themed ads and recommendations? Or did we forget how YouTube allowed incredibly disturbing content in ads and recommendations FOR KIDS (as in, literally injected into playlists meant for kids)?
I think this is the far more pressing issue. Capitalism will gladly throw the health of people under the bus if it makes them a quick buck.
It's a different approach based on age, too - the parental controls Apple provides are great for a toddler on an iPad, and may even work into elementary school... but not forever. You can't hide kids from reality, no matter what you take away. I knew too much and more by age 8 and we didn't even have the internet. When our son gets to be 6 or 7 we'll probably have to start explaining the concept of porn and online bad actors, and that's depressing, but it's the world we live in.
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If they don’t invent excuses to take tech away from people, for scanning everything , to force us using AIs which tell us the stories they want told, how will they retain power and hide their crimes?
- Demand to "protect the children" or else we'll do
- is not done because, well, it's impossible.
- Do whilst claiming "they gave us no other choice"
Fucking hell, can we get an age and qualification limit on politicians already?
Over reach dressed up as protection for children.
I don't have kids myself so can't say I understand how prevalent this problem is, but I can imagine it's not as big of a problem as what politicians are making out. Certainly not big enough that this can be the answer, even if this legitimately required a solution, such a solution would surely be a last resort.
On iOS parental controls let you choose to manage the child’s contacts. So they can only communicate with anyone you put in there. You can also block communication in apps. You can also block unapproved websites or let Apple block the ones in its list. You can set age restrictions on everything. You can be pretty heavy-handed if you want to. You can also buy the kid a dumb phone.
He may as well be saying that he needs to put cameras in every car to verify that kids are wearing seatbelts if they’re in the car. That would likely reduce more harm than this, but it’s also more obvious what the problem is.
Easiest solution is awarness. Teach the parents how to monitor their children and how to use parental control. They can offer classes for this.
Its just crazy the amount of stupid laws that poo up in place of covering for poor parenting lol
There is a nice german word for such thinking. It's "Vollkasko-mentalität" - Vollkasko is car insurance which covers everything + mentality.
I also find it funny that any existing smartphones have to work in this system too. I'd like to see the performance of any filter technology on an Android 4 based device that hasn't seen an update or an replacement battery for decades. And what about feature phones?
I'd say let them catapult themselves back into analog times, it'll be fun to watch when they realize that filtering that requires opening letters like back in East Germany.
it'll be fun to watch when they realize that filtering that requires opening letters like back in East Germany.
Is Playboy back in business?
If Apple and Google are sending kids nude images, then their parents are showing them porn by giving them phones.
Let me guess, the solution is age verification for everyone?
because it's not about the kids, it's never been about the kids. It's about collecting/harvesting user data, IDs, and tracking said user.
Age verification for social media isn't working. why? because people will simply just stop using it. now porn? well they figure everyone gets horny and loves porn so it's the next best bet to continue to try and collect said data.
We all know the EASIEST solution to this issue, it's like you set, parental controls. it's always been the easiest solution. always. but THAT doesn't collect a users data.
Look i'll be honest if all these governments and companies just straight up came out and said "ok, we lied, it's not about the kids we just want your data. that's it. we want it so we can track it and sell it. we need the easy money." I'd slightly respect them more for it.
Seriously how about this "you allow us to collect and sell your data and we'll give you a tax break or a cut of the profits from selling it. we'll make this an opt in thing" just do that. just be god damn honest.
Easy, just send every parent who gives a minor a phone to prison. Problem solved!
The end result is further controlling people and surveilling them. Privacy is being murdered in record time.
Soon every person will have a mandatory telescreen in their pocket, linked to their facial recognition in a Palantir run 'government' database.
What’s more likely, the prime minister is a clueless idiot who jeeps making blunder after blunder and is too stupid to even consider asking for advice from experts in the field, or he’s paid by terrorists?
I don't know how likely the second one is. But both can be true.
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I wonder what would happen if those companies simply told the UK government it wasn't possible, and withdrew from the market?
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"We will change the law" means they haven't changed it yet. And this PM is so god damn popular in his own party, they are just trying to get his possible replacement in in an otherwise unnecessary byelection. This sounds decisive but isn't a fait accompli by any stretch of the imagination. The tech big guns will sound amenable to such a policy but will do fuck all.
Politicians are usually completely fucking clueless about the nuances of technology, but there’s something in the water in the UK that seems to make their pols reach for the stars in that regard.
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