To: UK Government & Big Tech Companies
Stop On device Photo scanning
Stop the government from forcing a Law on big tech companies of Mobile brands to have them Scan / Block / Prevent use of Cameras on Phones for anyone who doesn't verify their age.
Why is this important?
The government’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Lisa Nandy, has revealed that they’re planning to introduce new legislation that will have the power to force the likes of Google and Apple to introduce mandatory Age Verification measures on Smartphones. The goal is the stop children sharing nude images of themselves, but it will also impact adult users.
The reason for it seems good, prevent children from taking indecent pictures, or sending them.. But it also means that Our Private images are at risk.
Instead ban the USE and SALE of camera enabled phones and Tablets for Under 16s OR force parents of children to use Parental control apps or services on the devices that can allow them to block the use of the cameras until they are of 16+ age.
I can see Banning kids from taking indecent images on camera phones is good, But at the same time, it has inherent flaws and some aspects are Overlooked completely with the way they want to do it...
Myself and many others, use their camera phones to take photos of personal things, private documents, house layouts, passwords, phone numbers and many other strictly private info/images... And with this "Scanning for Nude images" Law or Legislation that the goverment wants to force on big phone tech, will be OS (android, IOS) level and not just within an app, and will be pushed onto everyone.
This would mean that, yes, you could prevent the children taking those indecent images and that would prevent harm... but without scanning everything, how do you find those harmful images... And not only that, WHO or WHAT is checking those images, storing them, seeing them, and sending them to other places.. We wont know, no one will, as it will be done in secret.. (Data always leaks)
On top of that, this scanning tech, is known, to produce false flags, how long before innocent people or even kids taking innocent photos of a plushie or something get flagged as trying to send indecent images... Its not a perfect technology.. for Millions of photos a day, and having a human or humans check, is indecent and puts those people in a position where they have to find and look at indecent images of children, which nobody of sound mind would ever want to do.
It could harm more people and cause more issues than what the Law is trying to prevent.
The Best way I think to stop the children from taking or sending inappropriate images is to Prevent them from owning a Camera Enabled device OR force parents to Enable a more advanced Parental control that Locks the use of the camera until they are 16+
Myself and many others, use their camera phones to take photos of personal things, private documents, house layouts, passwords, phone numbers and many other strictly private info/images... And with this "Scanning for Nude images" Law or Legislation that the goverment wants to force on big phone tech, will be OS (android, IOS) level and not just within an app, and will be pushed onto everyone.
This would mean that, yes, you could prevent the children taking those indecent images and that would prevent harm... but without scanning everything, how do you find those harmful images... And not only that, WHO or WHAT is checking those images, storing them, seeing them, and sending them to other places.. We wont know, no one will, as it will be done in secret.. (Data always leaks)
On top of that, this scanning tech, is known, to produce false flags, how long before innocent people or even kids taking innocent photos of a plushie or something get flagged as trying to send indecent images... Its not a perfect technology.. for Millions of photos a day, and having a human or humans check, is indecent and puts those people in a position where they have to find and look at indecent images of children, which nobody of sound mind would ever want to do.
It could harm more people and cause more issues than what the Law is trying to prevent.
The Best way I think to stop the children from taking or sending inappropriate images is to Prevent them from owning a Camera Enabled device OR force parents to Enable a more advanced Parental control that Locks the use of the camera until they are 16+
