The Guardian view on children and the internet: rolling back big tech’s untrammelled power | Editorial

A mid the flurry of resignations by ministers who said they had lost confidence in Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, Jess Phillips’s attack on his record on tech regulation stood out. “Over a year ago I presented solutions, long worked on by brilliant civil servants, that would end the ability for children in the UK to take naked images of themselves,” she wrote. The postponement of an announcement in March left her frustrated. In the end, all that Ms Phillips managed to secure was a pledge that the law might change sometime. Other campaigners echoed her frustration. Hannah Swirsky, head of policy at the Internet Watch Foundation, agreed that the government had been slow to act, despite the rise in offences involving self‑generated explicit imagery. One month on, Ms Phillips’s decision to quit her role as safeguarding minister has perhaps focused minds. Sir Keir started the week with a speech at London Tech Week in which he announced that Google and Apple – which between them control the operating systems on almost all smartphones – have until September to install software that blocks all nude images from children’s phones. He highlighted a product built by a UK company, SafeToNet, that shows it can be done. Jess Asato MP. Photograph: House of Commons Technically, the announcement was only a warning. The deadline for action is three months off and the Online Safety Act was years in the drafting. But it is part of a broader shift. …