UK peers and MPs push to mandate child abuse detection software on all smartphones
UK House of Lords to propose mandatory CSAM detection software on smartphones
A cross-party alliance led by Conservative peer John Nash and Labour's Jess Phillips is proposing legislation that would require tech companies to install software on every phone and tablet sold in Britain to block child sexual abuse material, including AI-generated images and livestreams. The government has already promised to force Apple and Google to prevent children from taking or sharing nude images. Nash warns he will amend the national security bill if ministers don't act. An Observer poll shows 80% public support.
Frankly, these are trillion-dollar companies. Of course, if they are made to do it, they can do it.
- cortesoft
I can't help but think of the dad who was investigated by the FBI for having pictures he took to show his kid's doctor.
Are parents going to be arrested for pictures of their kids in the bathtub? Or at least are they going to be blurred?
- numpad0
> there was a “ghastly worldwide industry” of child sexual abuse material being created, and that Britain was one of the biggest consumers of it,
They're talking about anime and how UK is not making any, nor is it significant market of to be infliential to, yet nevertheless consuming it in ever larger quantity over the years, unilaterally receiving cultural influence with no leverages, not even cash flow that can be choked off. Lots of these "CSAM" stuff is inflated with imaginary kids and trafficking angles to hide that intent, but it boils down to that.
Otherwise the action taken would be to assigning more police officers or otherwise assigning more resources to support kids IRL. They're not doing that. They only want speeches suppressed.
I don't know why they don't just tax social media for it, though. CDN bandwidth for foreign user-generated contents can be measured. Maybe because they just don't like fictions at all, but that ship had sailed like, thousands of years ago.
- calgoo
The worst part is in the end: “We will also give the police the powers they need to keep pace with criminal use of emerging technologies in order to keep our children safe.”
Which means that not only will it blur it, it will also report it and you will be processed for a picture of your kid for the doctor or when the "fail safe" software fails.
- 56dev_
90% of voters back the software? I'm curious what the "short description" they gave was. I'm surprised not more people are concerned about the surveillance aspect.
- bondarchuk
Kind of an aside but they finally removed the hereditary members this year (yes this year)! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords_(Hereditary_Pee...
Though there's still these lads I think? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_Spiritual
- sikozu
This is an insane proposal, what they really mean is protecting the children is a front for surveillance since you'll look bad if you don't care about children.
- txrx0000
This is what happens when multiple sinister interests align: Apple and Google will get to further cement their smartphone OS and hardware duopoly. Five Eyes will get extra surveillance and dissent suppression capabilities. Corrupt men of the Epstein class will get their crimes covered up because the public can no longer record or view the evidence.
We must never forget the Five Eyes global surveillance apparatus exposed by Edward Snowden [0]. And never forget that elite child predators are protected by governments [1].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Revelations
- dennysora-main
I think it's very interesting. The detection function needs to send data back to the cloud, right?
Does it need to be written into the Kernel? Or how does it work?
I think we're probably not far from the world of Watch Dogs. As for whether it will become 2077, we'll have to wait and see.