Apple and Google Miss Deadline to Block Child Nudity on Their Phones in the UK
Apple and Google Miss Deadline to Block Child Nudity on Their Phones in the UK
苹果与谷歌未能在英国设定的最后期限前屏蔽手机上的儿童裸露内容
In June, the UK government told Big Tech it had three months to make taking, viewing, or sharing images of child nudity on their devices impossible. “I expect tech firms to make that happen,” said then prime minister Keir Starmer. “But if they choose not to, then we will act and change the law.”
今年 6 月，英国政府告知大型科技公司，它们有三个月的时间来杜绝在其设备上拍摄、查看或分享儿童裸露图像的行为。“我期望科技公司能做到这一点，”时任首相基尔·斯塔默（Keir Starmer）表示，“但如果他们选择不这样做，那么我们将采取行动并修改法律。”
That deadline arrived on Tuesday, and the government says that the likes of Apple and Google have failed. As a result, they will be changing the law to introduce what the UK government claims will be world-first legislation of its kind.
这一最后期限已于周二到期，英国政府表示，苹果和谷歌等公司未能达标。因此，政府将修改法律，出台其声称是全球首例此类立法的法规。
While engineers from Apple and Google had been working with the government since June to make changes, “they do not meet the scale of this crisis,” Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media, and sport, told lawmakers on Tuesday as she introduced the legislation.
尽管苹果和谷歌的工程师自 6 月以来一直与政府合作进行改进，但英国数字、文化、媒体和体育大臣丽莎·南迪（Lisa Nandy）在周二提交该法案时对议员们表示：“这些措施无法应对这场危机的规模。”
Under the new plan, companies failing to build the child protection solutions into all existing and newly sold smartphones and tablets in the UK would face fines and potential criminal liability for their bosses. “We know that this is a sector that can—when required—innovate at an extraordinary pace when the chips are down,” Nandy added.
根据新计划，未能将儿童保护解决方案植入英国所有现有及新售智能手机和平板电脑的公司，将面临罚款，其高管还可能承担刑事责任。南迪补充道：“我们知道，这是一个在关键时刻能够——且必须——以惊人速度进行创新的行业。”
Nandy also plans to explore placing similar legal requirements on apps used by children, like Instagram and Snapchat. Neither Meta nor Snap immediately responded to a request for comment.
南迪还计划探讨对 Instagram 和 Snapchat 等儿童使用的应用程序施加类似的法律要求。Meta 和 Snap 均未立即回应置评请求。
“For too long, technology companies have failed to protect children from the worst harms,” Nandy said, “and to be frank, I am not prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt that progress will continue at the pace we need it to while harm is being done now.” Still, she said she would reassess whether legislation is necessary if platforms implement solutions while it is being drawn up.
“长期以来，科技公司未能保护儿童免受最严重的伤害，”南迪说，“坦率地说，在伤害正在发生的情况下，我不准备再给他们机会，去假设他们会以我们需要的速度取得进展。”不过她也表示，如果平台在立法起草过程中落实了解决方案，她会重新评估是否有必要进行立法。
“Apple and Google needed to urgently introduce these protections to ensure online sexual abuse is disrupted and prevented on children’s devices,” says Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. “Now the deadline is up, government must crack down and legislate.”
“苹果和谷歌需要紧急引入这些保护措施，以确保在儿童设备上阻断和预防网络性虐待，”英国防止虐待儿童协会（NSPCC）首席执行官克里斯·舍伍德（Chris Sherwood）表示，“现在最后期限已过，政府必须采取严厉打击措施并进行立法。”
Not everyone is so keen on the measures, which would not impact adults who had verified their age. In June, messaging app Signal accused the UK government of using the measures to rush “invisible surveillance infrastructure” into law. It warned that forcing UK residents to prove their age and have their content scanned in the name of child safety could be a slippery slope into wider surveillance.
并非所有人都支持这些措施，这些措施不会影响已验证年龄的成年人。今年 6 月，即时通讯应用 Signal 指责英国政府利用这些措施将“隐形监控基础设施”匆忙写入法律。它警告称，以儿童安全为名强制英国居民证明年龄并扫描其内容，可能会滑向更广泛的监控。
Apple, meanwhile, says it is working with the UK government in the name of protecting kids. “We share the UK’s commitment to combating exploitation and abuse online and have shared with UK officials future plans to strengthen Communication Safety and other tools even further to help keep kids safe,” an Apple spokesperson tells WIRED in a statement, pointing to its Communication Safety feature launched in 2021, which blurs photos or videos detected to contain nudity on a child’s device.
与此同时，苹果表示正以保护儿童为名与英国政府合作。苹果发言人在一份声明中告诉《连线》（WIRED）杂志：“我们认同英国在打击网络剥削和虐待方面的承诺，并已与英国官员分享了进一步加强‘通信安全’（Communication Safety）及其他工具的未来计划，以帮助保障儿童安全。”该发言人提到了苹果于 2021 年推出的“通信安全”功能，该功能会自动模糊儿童设备上检测到的包含裸露内容的照片或视频。
A Google spokesperson says in a statement that their team is “pleased to have made progress and are fully committed to continuing to work with experts, legislators, app developers and device manufacturers to keep children safe, while also protecting privacy and access to information.”
谷歌发言人在声明中表示，他们的团队“很高兴取得了进展，并完全致力于继续与专家、立法者、应用开发者和设备制造商合作，在保护隐私和信息获取的同时保障儿童安全。”
Globally, governments taking more extreme measures to protect children from online harms have been met with backlash over privacy and other digital rights. In the European Union, civil rights activists opposed extended legislation allowing tech firms to voluntarily scan users’ private messages for child sexual abuse material. Elon Musk’s X complained that the information-gathering powers imposed by Australia’s social media ban risk interfering with international law.
在全球范围内，各国政府为保护儿童免受网络伤害而采取的极端措施，因涉及隐私和其他数字权利而遭到抵制。在欧盟，民权活动人士反对扩大立法，该立法允许科技公司自愿扫描用户的私人信息以查找儿童性虐待材料。埃隆·马斯克的 X 平台则抱怨称，澳大利亚社交媒体禁令所赋予的信息收集权力可能会干扰国际法。
In the UK, Nandy also said the government was considering going further with its sweeping social media ban for children under 16, which was announced earlier this year and remains on track to go into effect in spring 2027. She is also looking at strengthening the law around AI chatbots to protect children on those platforms as well.
在英国，南迪还表示，政府正在考虑进一步推进针对 16 岁以下儿童的全面社交媒体禁令。该禁令于今年早些时候宣布，目前仍计划于 2027 年春季生效。她还在研究加强有关人工智能聊天机器人的法律，以保护在这些平台上活动的儿童。