Three months was all the time the British government gave Apple and Google to agree on protecting children from explicit images on their smartphones. When that deadline passed on Tuesday with no deal reached, Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, walked into the House of Commons and announced that Parliament would act instead. The move places the UK government on a direct collision course with two of the most powerful companies in the world — and signals that voluntary cooperation between governments and Big Tech may be running out of road. The proposed legislation would prohibit anyone under 18 from taking, sharing, or viewing nude images on their devices, with restrictions switched on by default and built directly into the operating system.

Because Apple's iOS and Google's Android together dominate the global smartphone market, complying with UK law would effectively reshape how those devices function for young people everywhere. Adults would also be required to verify their age before accessing such content, a provision that raises serious privacy questions — questions that sources familiar with the talks say were among the key sticking points preventing a voluntary agreement. The stakes behind the policy are not abstract. Jess Phillips, a Labour MP and former safeguarding minister, argued that the legislation could end the UK's role as a source of self-generated child sexual abuse material, where children are manipulated or deceived into sharing images of themselves.

The Internet Watch Foundation, which tracks the spread of such material online, expressed frustration that tech firms had not moved faster on their own. Yet the hardest question may be one of geography.