The UK Government should introduce legislation requiring messaging services and apps that do not use verified user registration (such as phone number or email-based accounts) to restrict the ability to send or distribute media files, including images, videos, and audio messages.

Because these messaging services allow users to communicate without a verified registered account, there is a lack of accountability. Due to this, we believe these apps are at a higher risk of being used to distribute harmful media, such as child pornography and other illegal sexual content. Therefore, by restricting media sharing on services without verified user identities, we think the risk of these apps being misused in this way decreases significantly.