Digital Safety: Children

Lord Young of Acton Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The consultation to which the noble Lord refers includes looking at features and functionalities; it looks at addictive algorithms, screen time and the impact on children’s health. The consultation has closed. There were many responses, and we are taking time to make sure that we have looked carefully at them—and, in addition to those responses, at the conversations that have gone on. I cannot pre-empt the Government’s response, which will come soon, but all the matters I have just mentioned were within the consultation for discussion.

[Lord Young of Acton (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as the director of the Free Speech Union. Can the Minister tell us how the Government intend to safeguard against the obvious risks of requiring technology companies such as Apple to scan private messages before they are sent or received—also known, I believe, as client-side scanning? History teaches us that mass surveillance and censorship capabilities, however well intentioned, never remain narrowly scoped, whether in the hands of the state or private companies.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The particular expectation that has been set for industry is in relation to nudity detection, and that technology has advanced substantially. Apple has rolled out device-level age assurance too. This is not about threats to privacy; it is about keeping children safe online. An adult will be able to switch it off if they want to, if they are able to verify that they are over 18. This measure is about keeping children safe. It is about implementing nudity-detection technology on children’s phones.