Keir Starmer has issued a warning to Tech Companies to implement controls to prevent children from sending or receiving sexually explicit images
Addressing the opening of London’s Tech week the Prime Minister said that
“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… if they choose not to then we will act and we will change the law”
In a wide ranging speech Keir Starmer says the government is taking action to simplify regulation and remove barriers to innovation, thereby giving access to global talent and capital to help companies scale in the UK.
He discussed an example of how a historic soap factory in Warrington will be converted into a data centre, part of Britain’s ‘emerging revolution in technology’.
‘Young people can look and see not what their community used to be, but what it can become.’ adding that stories like this are a glimpse into an “emerging revolution in technology” – which Britain is “uniquely placed” to lead as the third-largest technology economy in the world.
A technology revolution is coming, he says, and the question is “what kind of country we want to be as it unfolds”, and whether the UK shapes the change or allows it “to shape us”.
The pace of change though cannot be an excuse for harm and where tech poses a threat to “our people, to our children” the government will act “quickly” and “firmly” citing the Government’s action when X allowed its AI tool, Grok, to create “disgusting” and explicit AI images.
During the speech the Prime Minister also announced that AI tutors will be rolled out to 450,000 children on free school meals to close the attainment gap.
