The UK is reportedly planning to introduce new laws that require Apple and Google to protect children from any online nudity, or see their CEOs jailed.

It's already because of the UK's Online Safety Act and and some laws on the state-level in the US that Apple has introduced age verification. According to The Times, however, the country's government intends to go further.

Reportedly, UK ministers will announce plans to require technology firms such as Apple and Google to make it impossible for children to see any nude images. That includes sex scenes in films and TV, as well as on social media.

For the first time, the law would give the UK the power to imprison technology bosses if the firms fail to do this. The sentence can be as long as five years.

It's an escalation that has been discussed and previously dismissed by a UK government unwilling to risk damaging relationships with technology firms. Former Home Office safeguarding minister Jess Phillips resigned in May 2026 specifically because the government had only been willing to "encourage" firms to comply.

"It has taken me a year to get you to agree to even threaten to legislate in this space," wrote Phillips to Prime Minister Keir Starmer in her resignation letter. "Not legislate, just threaten."

"The announcement was meant to be in March, I'm still on a promise this will happen in June, I've given up believing it," she continued. "How many children were left without a safety net in the time we dilly dallied and worried about tech bosses?"

Civil liberties organizations object

While neither Apple nor Google have yet commented publicly on this latest report, civil liberties organizations have. They argue that for all its good intentions, such a law would inevitably lead to an eradication of privacy.

"This will only result in population-wide ID checks for all of us to use our phones, tablets and laptops," said Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch. "These plans would replace efforts for meaningful tech and parental responsibility with performative, authoritarian government control that children can easily circumvent by accessing adult-registered devices."

"Planned restrictions on messaging, streaming and browsing raise the potential of spyware in our pockets that will be exploited for other purposes before long," she continued.

However, representatives from the UK's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) have welcomed the reported plans.

"It is time for tech bosses to do everything in their power to keep young people safe online and introduce already existing technology on children's phones to block nude images," said the NSPCC's Rani Govender.

Protections already in place

Govender's point about existing technology is a reference to how both Google and Apple have already implemented child protection features. In February 2025, Apple began rolling out a comprehensive series of protections that, for instance, see the App Store preventing children from seeing age-inappropriate content.

Apple had also previously announced measures to protect against Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM), although these were then dropped following criticism from civil liberties groups.

Until the UK publishes its planned legislation, it's not clear whether Apple already sufficiently complies with the requirements. It's also not clear what happens if children choose to circumvent age protections.

After the UK blocked adult sites in 2025, it was reported that the use of VPNs to get around the location-based lock soared. Proton VPN, for one, reported an increase in subscriptions of 1,400% when that block first began.