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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/55094518

“The UK government wants technology companies to block explicit images on phones and computers by default to protect children, with adults having to verify their age to create and access such content,” the FT report said. “Ministers want the likes of Apple and Google to incorporate nudity-detection algorithms into their device operating systems to prevent users taking photos or sharing images of genitalia unless they are verified as adults.”

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[-] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 66 points 2 weeks ago

OMG. These plans are getting on my nerves.

When a parent gives a kid their device and sets the child’s birthday, then enable these. If the birthday is over 18, the let them do what they want.

Let parents parent the kid and get the government out of my life.

[-] MudMan@fedia.io 11 points 2 weeks ago

It's kind of unfortunate how much this has been encouraged by petty online fights. People were very excited when "will somebody think of the children" was applied to, say, some social media content or gaming loot boxes because the Internet did not like those things, so they were very happy to ignore the pre-existing parental control devices and request blanket bans. Then people remembered that a bunch of old, prudish people on both sides of the political aisle don't like porn and it was too late.

Man, people love the "they first came for" argument online and I should have guessed the first time it really pays off in the 21st century it'd include the absolute most depressing things possible instead.

Anyway, this is bad and I don't like it, but UK politics are almost as bad as US politics, so I'm happy to let both stew in their own cautionary tale juices.

[-] evilcultist@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

None of those other things should require any sort of identity or age verification, though. In the case of loot boxes, government should be able to tell companies, “hey, you can’t sell that here”. In the case of age verification and nudity scanning there’s a whole host of issues from the fact that people don’t find loot boxes to be taboo or embarrassing to the fact that people do find nudity and porn embarrassing, to the fact that any scanning systems will false flag, to questions about who has access to the data that is submitted and how long it is stored, to how easy it could be to misuse the systems to go after disadvantaged groups (we all know LGBT content will intentionally be covered by this, whether they’re open about it or not, right?), to whether or not the system will be used for other purposes that either aren’t being said aloud or won’t be realized until after it’s implemented.

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[-] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 weeks ago

Or just don’t fucking age gate shit.

Seriously who the fuck cares if a kid sees a titty?

[-] Mondez@lemdro.id 9 points 2 weeks ago

Worse is that it likely won't be able to distinguish between intentionally titilating material and material intended to educate. Only over 18 are allowed to learn about human physiology after submitting identifying information.

[-] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

I've been watching porn since I was 10.

That's all. Porn is great.

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[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago
[-] mannycalavera@feddit.uk 6 points 2 weeks ago

That seems the most sensible way of doing things. Apple probably doesn't want that outcome though because then they'll be liable for the implementation rather than, for example, the social networks or websites.

Always gotta be thinking about the Apple shareholders.

[-] thejml@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

Honestly, No. I don't want my phone making decisions for me or my kids. If its site by site, they can just go somewhere else.

As a parent, I'm far more worried about shitty social media algorithms that push narratives and online bullying and misinformation than I am about nudity. People have bodies, sex happens, it's normal, whatever. I'd rather my kid learned about all that instead of being sheltered away from it until they turned 18.

If anything, normalizing nudity and acceptance of different body types is probably a good thing for kids to learn, especially females where a constant narrative of "skinny, pretty, perfect" is being shoved on them and shaming them for not being a super model is considered the status quo.

Let me make that decision as a parent, don't try to protect my kids for me.

[-] snoons@lemmy.ca 44 points 2 weeks ago

Puritanical bullshit... what the fuck.

[-] RadicalCandour@startrek.website 2 points 2 weeks ago

Man, I was at tumblr when this was being implemented. It was so fucking stupid and everyone knew it.

[-] Infernal_pizza@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 2 weeks ago

Jesus fucking Christ I hate this shithole of a country

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 31 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

UK war on ...nudity?

Them being prude is nothing new but this takes the cake.

[-] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 11 points 2 weeks ago

Home of the [in]famous page 3 Girls

[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 2 weeks ago

It's not about nudity. It's about control. The government wants full control over your computer and mobile phones.

[-] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think it's anything as sinister from the current government. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but they're more stupid and weak than they are totalitarian. British Labour has had an obsession with "tech" solutions for social issues since the start of the Blair years. Sometimes it works, but as often it's mired in incompetency and corruption.

I suspect that this recent spate of apparent puritanism is because they recognise that gender-based and sexual violence are "issues" after the discourse around Adolescence, but they can't/don't want to do anything actually meaningful (improve welfare, job opportunities, life prospects) so are latching onto what they believe are "easy" solutions. No-one with power actually understands how net infrastructure works, or cares about privacy as a principle, but they do have a group think that also leads them to think that this might make some inroads with "the right."

It's all absolute garbage being slapped together by career politicians who don't understand anything and are primarily interested either in their next election or their post-parliament careers.

[-] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 25 points 2 weeks ago

Gotta love how it's "better" in these assholes' "minds" to pretend sex doesn't exist than to actually parent them on the topic that the kids are gonna find out about anyway - often in an unexpected and/or uncontrolled fashion. I'd much rather get ahead of that and make sure they know what they need to before they come face-to-face with it and are clueless - something much more likely to result in what is a supposedly (because they sure are picking the worst way to avoid it) undesirable outcome in the end.

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[-] deleted@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago

We need a solid linux phone fast.

[-] ryannathans@aussie.zone 7 points 2 weeks ago

Saw posts about one on Lemmy today, seems to be pretty cheap too

[-] specialseaweed@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 weeks ago

As the dad of a teenager, I am "encouraging" him to put nudity blocking systems on his phone.

oh shit would you look at that i just taught him how to go around me and hide his behavior better im sure there will be no future consequences whatsoever

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

The important thing isn't that your kids don't see porn, it's that they feel the requisite amount of shame and never talk to you about their sexuality.

Also, it's one more thing we can criminalize in a surveillance state. So now we can more easily extort horny people with fines and prison if we feel the need

[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Soon: Police sirens have been detected, video recording terminated.

police begin shooting protesters

[-] treesquid@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

England is turning into a really proper shithole country

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

American here......first time?

[-] habitualcynic@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Even if you’re morally opposed to the various things this addresses, it is so immensely concerning and unwise to want a corporation to have this much control over your actions, daily life, and liberty.

I don’t think enough people talk about that.

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[-] sqgl@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

Looks like click-bait. It is a proposal from by one old fart in the 800 member House of Lords. Not a serious Bill.

Read this thread...

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1pnsawo/comment/nubbach/

Having said that, it is important to nip such ideas in the bud.

[-] BigBolillo@mgtowlemmy.org 3 points 2 weeks ago

Client side scanning, it's already happening in android running google services there are two apps automatically installed which at least I know scan photos in the device. One is android system saftycore and the other I can't remember the name.

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[-] SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Why, yes I would like to get literally cockblocked by Google and Apple. Thanks UK! /s

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

How exactly would such a system work?

[-] WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

AI, of course. It’s 100% accurate.

/s just in case

[-] Evotech@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The politicians don't care about those things. That's someone else's problem

[-] yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Of ALL the things to block. Why not AI blocking? Or social media blocking.

[-] jrs100000@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

My God. At least the US's fascism sort of makes sense from an internally consistent perspective. Make it make sense!

[-] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

The war with China is coming and both the US and the UK want to minimize the impact of protests. It will be inevitably nuclear because China cannot be beaten conventionally. So people will feel a bit compelled to protest which could put to test the usual means of population control.

[-] Takashiro@lemmy.today 2 points 2 weeks ago

In the end it isn't about the kids , what they want is control and tracking of everyone.

[-] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Year of the linux phone

If they make it obligatory, sudo systemctl disable uk-spyware

(I know that in that case it would be illegal to disable, solvable with sudo systemctl enable uk-spyware-spoof)

[-] SaraTonin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

They’re obviously going about it the wrong way, but this is inching towards the right way to go - keep age verification like biometric verification, encrypted and on-device. That’s a million times better than getting random pron sites to ask for your biometric data.

If they’d started with this thought and then kept thinking from there, they could have ended up with something decent and effective, rather than the current shitshow.

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago

Make it the software that comes with the device. So Samsung can install some child protection app and we just uninstall it. Anything bad ever happens on a kids phone? Why did the parents uninstall it?

Make the parents take the responsibility.

[-] acme401@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Gargle my balls, m'lord.

[-] horn_e4_beaver@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 weeks ago

I think it's time to throw my phone in the river.

[-] PhAzE@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago

Gotta blur out those women's ankles.

[-] pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

Remember when Tumblr banned porn, and implemented it so poorly that any photos with enough peach-ish or brown-ish colors got nuked for “displaying nudity”?

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this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
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