UK’s Starmer gives Apple, Google 3 months to stop children sending nude images

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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.

"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.

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?

I wonder what would happen if those companies simply told the UK government it wasn't possible, and withdrew from the market?

Easy, just send every parent who gives a minor a phone to prison. Problem solved!

Good riddance then

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)?

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.

Obviously protecting children must always be a priority, the issue with this is, is that tech companies will understandably go for the easier option: force age verification system wide, without it, the OS might be extremely limited, and this opens a whole new can of worms IMO.

Covering for Peter Mandelson with a “save our children” campaign

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?

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.