Local MP Gareth Snell Welcomes Labour Government’s Action To Strengthen Protection For Children Online

Stoke-on-Trent Central MP, Gareth Snell, has welcomed the Labour Government’s pledge to bring forward new legislation making it impossible for children to take, view or send nude images on their devices, as part of a wider crackdown on grooming, exploitation and abuse.

This follows work the Government has been doing with Apple and Google since 8^th June to secure commitments from technology companies to build stronger safeguards into devices. Ministers say this progress does not yet go far enough and will now legislate so protections are built directly into the technology itself, rather than left for parents and carers to manage on their own.

The new law focuses on three main points. It must be impossible for anyone under 18 to take, view or send nude images across every device feature and app. Nudity detection filters must be switched on by default. The only way an adult could access such content would be through a robust age-verification process.

The need for action is underlined by figures from the Internet Watch Foundation, which recorded more child sexual extortion cases in the first six months of this year than in the whole of 2025. The charity’s Report Remove service received just 19 sextortion reports in 2022, rising to 394 by 2025. In 2024, 91% of online child sexual abuse reports involved content generated by children themselves.

The measures sit alongside wider Government action to protect children online, including stopping social media companies offering their services to under-16s, restricting high-risk features such as livestreaming and contact with strangers, and switching off attention-grabbing design features, such as autoplay and personalised endless feeds, by default for 16 and 17-year-olds.

Gareth said: “Children and young people in Stoke-on-Trent Central should be able to use technology without being exposed to the risks of sexual exploitation, abuse and grooming. Parents and carers should not have to become experts in complicated settings just to keep their children safe. The responsibility must also sit with the companies designing and providing these services.”

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy told Parliament that tech companies would be given the chance to lead, but not allowed to lag, adding: “When it comes to children’s safety, we are not and never will be bystanders.”