Updated 8 January 2026 at 14:23 IST
Britain Now Requires Tech Firms to Block Unsolicited Nude Images: Should India Follow?
Cyberflashing has been a criminal offence in England and Wales since January 2024, with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison.
Britain’s new Online Safety Act duties now require platforms to proactively block “cyberflashing,” or unsolicited sexual images, shifting responsibility from after-the-fact takedowns to prevention. The obvious question for India is whether similar “duty of care” rules are necessary, and whether they can be enforced without becoming a blunt censorship tool.
What changed in Britain
Cyberflashing has been a criminal offence in England and Wales since January 2024, with penalties of up to two years in prison. From Thursday, it is treated as a “priority offence” under the Online Safety Act, meaning major platforms, including social networks, video apps, dating apps, and porn sites, face tougher legal requirements to detect and prevent the material, not merely respond after it spreads.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told Reuters platforms are “required by law to detect and prevent this material,” linking the move to online safety for women and girls and citing polling that one in three teenage girls had received unsolicited sexual images. Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, is expected to consult on what practical measures companies must take to comply.
Why deepfakes are part of this story
The UK move lands amid growing European scrutiny of AI-generated sexual content, including intimate deepfakes. France has opened an investigation into X tied to sexually explicit deepfakes generated via Grok, and the European Commission has warned it is examining Grok’s “spicy mode,” saying such content has no place in Europe. In the UK, Kendall has also urged X to address a surge of intimate deepfake images, while Ofcom said it contacted X to understand how it plans to comply with UK legal duties.
Should India follow?
India has already demanded explanations from X in relation to Grok-generated deepfake content, indicating regulators are paying attention to the same risk category even without an Online Safety Act-style framework. A UK-style approach could help by forcing platforms to do risk assessments, redesign product flows that enable abuse (DMs, image tools, “edit image” features), and deploy proactive detection for known abuse patterns.
But India would need tight guardrails: clear definitions, independent oversight, transparency reporting, appeal mechanisms, and narrowly scoped obligations focused on non-consensual sexual content. Otherwise, “proactive blocking” can expand into speech control.
Published By : Shubham Verma
Published On: 8 January 2026 at 14:23 IST