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Apple and other tech companies could be forced to make the change at OS level that is claimed to protect women and girls.
The UK govt wants to make OS-level changes for better safety.
Apple And Google could bring age-proof access to explicit images in certain regions, according to a new report. This step is expected to be taken to prevent violence against women and girls in the UK, as highlighted by Financial Times.
The change is going to be done on the platform level for both iOS and Android devices, which will seek further age verification process before allowing explicit images.
The report cites the Home Officials at the UK government who prefer to have these steps done using the biometric support built into these phones or even using the government ID. The system could be introduced with mobile devices and gradually extend to desktop PCs as well.
More Privacy For Users
Both the tech giants already have some level of security enabled for this content but the government seemingly wants to foolproof it further which could be a challenge. Not only because of its limited availability but the difficulty in making it work for select regions, similar to its EU strategy.
The other big aspect about this ruling is that the age-proof will work across apps and not just the ones native to Apple and Google (like iMessage and Google Messages). Making it work on WhatsApp or Snapchat will need all these companies to work in tandem, which is where the developer-level changes are important.
Age-proofing explicit content is needed but the guard rails need to be stronger than the existing system or else bypassing such restrictions become quite easy. We have seen some countries put an age limit on the access of social media apps, and similar restrictions could become quite common with more governments looking to protect the interest of the user over the obvious privacy concerns from security experts.
The ruling for these companies could be announced soon and we are eager to see how Apple and Google plan to act on these changes or refute them.
Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. December 16, 2025, 14:14 IST
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