Tech firms face cyberflashing crackdown

Social media giants will be ordered to crack down on cyberflashing on their platforms or face hefty fines.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall will use her speech to the Labour Party conference to order firms to detect and remove unsolicited explicit images being sent online.

Firms that fail to comply could be fined up to 10% of their qualifying global revenue and potentially see their services blocked in the UK.

Ms Kendall will tell activists in Liverpool that cyberflashing will be made a priority offence under the Online Safety Act, placing extra duties on firms to protect users from seeing unsolicited nude images or videos.

She will say: “Keeping children safe online is non-negotiable.

“That is why my first act as Secretary of State was to force social media companies to find and remove content that promotes suicide and self-harm.

“And today I can announce I will go further. Making cyberflashing a priority offence.

“So platforms will be required – by law – to detect and remove this material. Because what is illegal offline, must be illegal online.”

Cyberflashing became a criminal offence in England and Wales in January 2024.

Perpetrators can face up to two years in prison.

The scale of the problem was illustrated by a YouGov study suggesting a third (32%) of girls aged 12-18 in England received unsolicited pictures of male genitals, with one in 20 (5%) of the same age affected.