<
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/06/16/the-uks-teen-social-media-ban-is-political-theater-not-child-safety-policy/>
"UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is not having a particularly good time of being
the UK’s leader. Basically everyone thinks he’s doing a terrible job and it
seems unlikely that he’ll be in the role much longer. Apparently desperate to
turn the tide on being historically disliked, he’s decided to grab the most
reliable life preserver in modern politics: the techlash. Over the last few
weeks, everything he’s done can be summarized in a single sentence: “let’s
blame the internet for everything bad.”
It started a week ago with an announcement that if internet social media
companies didn’t wave a magic wand and make all sexting disappear… he would
start putting tech execs in prison.
“Today I’m calling on tech companies operating in this country to introduce
device controls that prevent children from sending and receiving sexually
explicit images,” Starmer said in a speech at London Tech Week. “This is
not an impossible challenge.”
Under the new plans, firms like Apple and Google would have to build or
activate technical solutions on smartphones and tablets to detect and block
nude images for children. Adults would still be able to take, share or view
nude content through an age verification process.
If companies did not act within three months, the government said it would
bring forward legislation to force them to do so or risk facing fines or, as
a last resort, the threat of criminal liability for bosses.
This is very much the magical “nerd harder” thinking by a technologically
clueless bureaucrat who thinks that societal problems can be solved by making
tech companies do the impossible: stopping humans from doing stupid things."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
