"The UK government's proposed ban on under-16s using social media would amount to building a mass age-verification system for the entire internet, creating "serious risks to privacy, data protection, and freedom of expression," digital rights advocates have warned. The government has opened a public consultation on ways to "drive action to improve children's relationship with mobile phones and social media," a broad-brush initiative that goes well beyond a simple age limit."
"But that is precisely the angle that alarms the Open Rights Group (ORG). The civil liberties organization has warned that a ban would require platforms to verify age at scale, with all the privacy and security downsides that entails. Age gating at this level, ORG says, would drag millions of adults and older teens into proving their identity to private corporations simply to post, message, or read online, multiplying the data collection risks that already plague Big Tech."
The government opened a public consultation on measures to improve children's relationship with mobile phones and social media, including restricting infinite scroll, raising the digital age of consent, and tightening enforcement of school phone bans. Ministers are considering blocking under-16s from major social platforms and lawmakers have backed a ban similar to Australia's. Open Rights Group warns that such a ban would force platforms to verify age at scale, requiring millions of adults and older teens to prove identity to private corporations and increasing privacy, data protection, and freedom of expression risks. Past breaches of age-verification data are cited as evidence of potential harm.
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