Commenting on the UK government’s plans to enforce passport ID checks on social media Big Brother Watch’s Maya Thomas said:
“Children deserve real online protections, not a sweeping surveillance scheme that has failed across the world and will introduce new risks to their safety.”
“This is not a policy for children, but one that effects every single adult using social media in the country. The Government’s requirement that all of us show a passport or driving license to open a social media account is a national ID scheme by the back door.”
“This proposal would tie every social media account, including everything we post, comment or search for, to a government ID. It would spell the death of whistleblower, dissident and similar anonymous accounts that enrich democracy, and severely widen the scope for invasive social media surveillance.”
“The Government should be teaching people to avoid sending identity documents over the internet, not turning our most widely used online platforms into ID checkpoints. In the last year alone, over 140,000 IDs checked for age verification purposes were hacked in two website breaches alone, with women’s photos posted across anonymous message boards.”
“The Government must urgently rethink this dangerous plan to build a sprawling, discriminatory digital ID system, and focus instead on supporting genuine child safety online.”
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Since 16 year olds can’t drive or undergo a credit check, this authoritarian policy essentially requires passports for the internet.
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Around 500,000 16-24 year olds do not hold either a British or foreign passport, meaning this Labour policy could lock out thousands of young, disproportionately poorer, people from the internet.
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Other countries that have trialed social media bans have found the majority of young people are still using the platforms, only with a worrying degree of secrecy, or worse some are spending time in less regulated corners of the internet.
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We can provide more information about the aforementioned data breaches above. Big Brother Watch produced a briefing for parliamentarians on the general social media ban proposal (April 2026): https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Big-Brother-Watch-Briefing-on-a-Proposed-Social-Media-Ban-for-Under-16s-April-2026.pdf
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Spokespeople are available for interview. Please direct enquiries or requests for interviews to info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk or 07730439257