MCF strongly welcomes today’s government announcement calling on technology companies to introduce stronger protections on children’s devices to prevent children from sending, receiving, viewing or sharing nude images and accessing pornography online.
The proposals announced today would make the UK the first country to introduce device-level protections for under-18s across smartphones and tablets. Unlike app-specific safety features, the proposed safeguards would sit at operating-system level, applying across the entire device - including cameras, messaging, apps and search - helping to prevent harmful content regardless of which platforms children use.
The government has made clear that technology companies will have three months to introduce these protections voluntarily. Where firms fail to act, legislation will follow. This announcement marks an important shift from reacting after harm has occurred to preventing abuse before it happens.
MCF CEO, Lawrence Jordan, shares why today’s announcement matters:
“At the Marie Collins Foundation, we see first-hand the devastating impact that online grooming, sexual extortion and image-based abuse can have on children, young people and families.
We strongly welcome the government’s focus on device-level protections and greater accountability for tech companies. Children should not have to bear the burden of keeping themselves safe online, nor should parents be left carrying that responsibility alone.
Tech companies have repeatedly shown they are capable of solving complex challenges when they choose to prioritise them. Protecting children should be one of those priorities.
More than 90% of child sexual abuse material identified online now is categorised as “self-generated” - despite many children having been groomed, manipulated, coerced or sexually extorted into creating imagery.
For too long, much of our response has come after abuse has already occurred. We need to be far more ambitious about prevention - reducing opportunities for offenders to groom, coerce and sexually exploit children in the first place.
This is not about excluding children from digital spaces. It is about ensuring the digital environments children use every day are safe for them to participate in.
Tech companies now have an opportunity to act. If they fail to do so, government must step in. The safety of children online cannot be left to goodwill, commercial priorities or voluntary action alone.”
Technology-assisted child sexual abuse (TACSA) has changed significantly over the last decade. Children can now be groomed within minutes, sexual extortion can escalate rapidly, and self-generated sexual imagery is increasingly used to manipulate, blackmail and exploit children.
Many survivors supported by MCF continue to live with the lasting impact of online abuse - from the fear that images may continue to circulate, to the lasting effects abuse can have on trust, relationships, confidence and emotional wellbeing. For many, the harm does not end when the abuse ends.
For MCF, this is why prevention matters - reducing opportunities for abuse before harm occurs, rather than responding only after children and families are already living with the consequences.