Douglas Alexander MP has welcomed the Labour Government’s announcement that it will prepare new legislation to strengthen protections for children online and tackle the growing threat of sexual exploitation and abuse.
The legislation will make it impossible for anyone under 18 to take, view or send nude images on their devices, with stronger device-level safeguards built into technology to help tackle grooming, exploitation and abuse.
The Government has been working with Apple and Google since June to secure world-first commitments to make it impossible for children to send, take or view nude images on their devices. There has been progress, marking an important start in efforts to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse. However, the Government has been clear that the voluntary commitments secured so far do not meet the scale of its ambition.
As a result, the Government has announced that it will bring forward legislation to build in device-level protections for children. Given the complexity of the issue, the Government will take the time needed to ensure the legislation is properly designed and technically effective. However, it will be introduced as soon as possible.
Technology companies will continue to have the opportunity to develop and implement effective technical solutions themselves while the legislation is being prepared. If companies in scope develop and implement solutions that deliver the protections required, the Government will reassess whether legislation remains necessary.
Douglas Alexander MP said:
“Children and young people in East Lothian should be able to use technology without being exposed to the risks of sexual exploitation, abuse and grooming.
“For too long, the pace of technological change has moved faster than the protections available to children. We cannot simply accept that as inevitable.
“I welcome our Labour Government’s decision to prepare legislation that will put stronger protections directly into the technology children use every day.
“Parents and carers should not have to become experts in complicated settings just to keep their children safe. The responsibility must also sit with the companies designing and providing these services.
“The evidence on online sexual exploitation is deeply concerning, and we have to act before children are harmed rather than waiting until the damage has been done.
“This is about making sure children here and across the country can benefit from technology while being properly protected from its most serious harms. Labour is determined to make the online world safer for children.”
Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, said in Parliament:
“In no other walk of life would we tolerate this crisis harming our children, so why should we tolerate it online.
“We will give tech companies the chance to lead but not allow them to lag. The message we are sending to tech companies is clear – planning must now become implementation, and progress must translate into protections that make a real difference in children’s lives.
“When it comes to children’s safety, we are not and never will be bystanders.”
The new legislation will be based on three clear principles:
- It must be impossible for anyone under the age of 18 to take, view or send nude images. This means images must be blocked across all device features, including cameras and third-party apps.
- Parents and carers should not have to take active steps to prevent children from consuming nude content. Nudity detection filters must therefore be switched on by default.
- The only way for any user to take, view or send nude images should be for an adult to verify their age through a robust age-assurance process.
The measures will mean that protections are built into the technology itself, helping to close gaps that can currently exist between different apps, platforms and device functions.
The Government is also clear that stronger protections must be delivered in a way that respects privacy, while ensuring that children cannot simply bypass safeguards by moving between different services.
The need for action is underlined by the growing evidence of online sexual exploitation and abuse affecting children and young people. Last month, the Internet Watch Foundation reported that more child sexual extortion-related reports had been recorded in six months than in the whole of 2025.
The charity’s Report Remove service received just 19 sextortion reports in 2022. By 2025, that figure had risen to 394, highlighting the rapidly escalating threat facing young people online.
In 2024, the charity reported that 91% of online child sexual abuse reports contained self-generated content from children themselves.
The measures come alongside wider action from the Labour Government to protect children online, including measures to prevent social media companies from providing their services to under-16s and restrictions on some of the riskiest features, including livestreaming and communications with strangers, across platforms such as games.
Features designed to keep users scrolling for longer, such as videos that automatically play one after another and feeds that continually serve up personalised content, will also be switched off by default for 16 and 17-year-olds. This will help ensure there is no cliff edge in protections as young people move into their later teenage years.