Everyone Over 16 May Need ID to Use Social Media, Ofcom Says

Social media users may be required to have photo ID to prove their age when Labour’s ban for under-16s comes into force in spring as current facial age checks are inadequate, Ofcom has said. The Telegraph has the story.

The regulator said current facial age checks used by social media platforms were not accurate enough to confirm whether a child was over 16.

It said this would mean that Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and others would need to implement other checks, such as requiring a photo ID.

Ofcom acknowledged that children aged 16 or 17 who “do not yet have a photo ID would likely need to take steps to obtain one”.

The proposal is set out in the regulator’s assessment of four methods it says could be used to enforce the UK’s under-16s ban. They are facial age estimation, passports, digital IDs and bank checks.

Child safety campaigners welcomed the tougher approach if it could be shown to work, but privacy groups warned it amounted to the backdoor introduction of national ID cards.

It comes after up to 60% of under-16s in Australia avoided age checks to stay on social media after that country’s ban....<<<Read More>>>...

New Hope in the Battle Against Digital Surveillance and Control

 A stricter version of Australia’s social media ban – the first in the world – has been announced in the UK, with device-level surveillance similar to spyware and ID verification for all smartphone users. As governments around the world are following suit, the digital dilemma crystallises into some very practical questions most of us will soon have to face.

Digital ID is on the doorstep, bringing the prospect of unprecedented tracking of our actions and the possibility of being excluded from services we need and like. If you’ve realised that simply giving in and going along will only create more problems – the compliance fallacy – considering the steps to take, both on an individual and collective level, is unavoidable.

And there’s some good news: a new digital rights movement is coming into being.

Refusal is the first and most obvious response. Without personal information from the majority of the population, digital ID systems simply can’t work. But non-compliance is more complex than just saying no and forcing the authorities to back down. Though, following the public outcry, the Government has shelved plans for mandatory digital ID, it’s continuing to introduce digital ID by stealth, working group by group, gradually taking more and more of us into its net. The main examples in the UK are the digitalisation of passport and driving licence applications and the tax system.

Refusing to participate in these systems is fairly straightforward. It involves sticking to paper systems which public bodies have to provide because there are millions of people in the UK who lack access to computers, phone or who don’t have the skills to navigate digital systems. Paper forms and a trip to the Post Office avoid the need to use an online account.

The demand by Companies House that company directors must verify their identity digitally, a process which involves giving a 3D scan of your face – proper biometrics of the kind used in facial recognition – is of a different order since compulsion is involved. It’s a clear breach of the principle of consent, a kind of data version of vaccine passports. But since it’s backed by law, refusal calls for a deeper level of non-compliance. And so the new digital coercion generates a complex and evolving picture as people respond in different ways to a new kind of threat....<<<Read More>>>..

Food for Thought #1130

 

Starmer announces intention to implement facial recognition and digital ID to access social media

 The UK government, reinforced by Keir Starmer at a press conference today, has announced its intention to ban social media access to under-16s from early next year.

The ban will be enforced using facial recognition software and digital IDs. To enable this, everyone wishing to use social media will be subject to facial recognition and digital IDs.

Aside from the obvious destruction to online privacy and freedom of speech, and the totalitarian control over every aspect of our lives which will ensue, how accurate is the technology that the UK government is imposing on the entire population?

Today, the UK government announced a ban on social media access for all children under the age of 16. Starmer is hoping the regulation will be passed through Parliament before Christmas and the ban enforced in the Spring of 2027.

Described as an “Australia plus” policy, this measure is one of the strictest online crackdowns in the democratic world and goes beyond the limits previously imposed in Australia.

The government plans to use “highly effective” age assurance systems, including age-recognition facial scans and digital IDs, to verify user ages.

We should note that everyone, not just under-16s, will be subjected to facial scans and digital IDs – “to protect children online” is a ruse to implement control over the entire population using whatever digital technology they have at their disposal.

Apart from ending online privacy and aiming for complete control over the information we can share and have access to, their digital tools are not as fail-safe as they like to pretend....<<<Read More>>>...

Global Tyranny: Britain is being used as a test case for digital ID control

 British politician David Kurten, leader of the Heritage Party, joined Daniel Forsius from the Swedish independent media outlet News Voice to discuss the escalating crisis in the UK.

From people being jailed for protests against migration crimes and social media posts, to the King’s Speech pushing digital ID, and the growing resistance with massive protests – Britain is being used as a test project for global control.

“There’s a lot of agitation in the UK at the moment among the people because they realise the Government is acting against the people, they’re not for the people,” Kurten said.

It’s not only in the UK. “I think all of the governments are working in lockstep together because [they all have an allegiance] to the World Economic Forum and the powers that be and the global cabal,” he said. “And at one point or another, some nations are pushing forward the agenda faster in some areas than others, and other times its other nations that are pushing forward.”

“But, I think at the moment, the UK is being used to push forward with the digital ID … but they’re also doing the same thing in Australia, New Zealand and Canada as well, it seems the English-speaking countries are being used at this very moment in time to push forward that part of the agenda.”

It’s not only the digital ID that the global cabal is trying to impose on nations. “I feel like I’m fighting 20 different battles all at the same time and they manifest in different nations at different times.”...<<<Read More>>>...

Food for Thought #1087

 

Tony Blair Institute claims digital ID public support is ‘recoverable’ (of course, its the agenda)

 Six months after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his intention to force digital ID for all workers in the UK, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) for Global Change says that the UK public could still be persuaded to accept one of the key components of the digital control grid.

According to the TBI report, “What Does the UK Public Think About Digital ID?” which was published on March 27:

“Our research finds that 43 per cent of respondents support the introduction of a digital-ID system in the UK, with 37 per cent opposed and 20 per cent undecided on the issue. While public support is narrower and more conditional than it was in the summer of 2025, net sentiment remains positive. That is a recoverable position.”

The questions in the latest Yonder poll were framed to show the potential benefits of digital ID, saying that it would be voluntary, free, quick, secure, and convenient.

And the TBI report concluded that one of the biggest obstacles to public acceptance of digital ID lay not particularly in the technical aspects, but rather a distrust of governments and institutions in general.

To overcome the issue of trust, the solution is to ignore how completely untrustworthy governments and institutions have become in the first place, and instead to focus on the shiny bells and whistles of convenience...<<<Read More>>>...

Digital IDs are a linchpin for totalitarian control

 For those who still have not understood that digital IDs are a cornerstone for global totalitarian control, here are some remarks from the horse’s mouth.

In the following, Tim Hinchcliffe highlights remarks made by WEF devotees relating to digital IDs being “useful” for CBDCs, access to services and information, and determining whether you have been vaccinated.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands tells the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) in Davos that digital ID is good for knowing “who actually got a vaccination or not” and for financial inclusion.

On Thursday [15 January 2026], the Dutch queen continued her crusade to see universal adoption of digital ID because she believes it is good for everything from opening a bank account to enrolling in school and for providing proof of vaccination, aka “vaccine passports.”

Speaking at the WEF annual meeting panel entitled ‘Comparing Notes on Financial Inclusion’, Her Majesty said:

“In order to open up an account, you need to have an ID. I have to say that when I started this job, there were actually very little countries in Africa or Latin America that had one ubiquitous type of ID, and certainly that was digital and certainly that was biometric.

“We’ve really worked with all our partners to actually help grow this, and the interesting part of it is that yes, it is very necessary for financial services, but not only.” ...<<<Read More>>>....

Britain Doesn’t Want or Need Digital ID

 In September 2025, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer introduced a new digital identity scheme for the UK. The Government says it will prevent illegal working and make public services simpler to access. Officials mention convenience, security and inclusion, but they do not explain who will control the system, how it will be used or what people can do if it is misused.

Right now, the digital ID scheme is a large and unnecessary move toward more government surveillance. It follows a pattern of government overreach and could leave older people and those with less money excluded from society. Advertising the scheme on YouTube before the consultation ends also shows a troubling attitude toward democracy, which should worry everyone, no matter their views on digital identity.

The Government claims that proving your identity is complicated and difficult, but this is open to debate. For generations, people in Britain have used passports, National Insurance numbers, driving licences, bank statements and utility bills to prove who they are. This system is intentionally spread out. No single authority controls it, so there is no single point of failure, and no one institution can take away someone’s ability to prove their identity.

The United Kingdom has a distinctive and hard-won tradition of resisting national identity schemes. When wartime identity cards were retained after 1945, the public mood turned sharply against them. In 1951, a motorist named Clarence Willcock refused a police officer’s demand to produce his card. The subsequent court ruling was so emphatic in its defence of individual liberty that the cards were abolished shortly afterwards.

The belief that the state must answer to its citizens, not the other way around, has continued. This led to the cross-party rejection of Tony Blair’s Identity Cards Act, which was repealed in 2010 after strong public opposition. Now, the current Government is trying a similar idea under a new name. The goal remains the same, even if the method has changed....<<<Read More>>>...

Digital IDs are insecure and can be hacked

 Professor Norman Fenton recently had his Twitter account taken over by hackers who sent out thousands of spam posts and messages.

This serves as a warning for those who adopt digital identities (“IDs”).

I predict now that in every country that adopts the digital IDs wanted by our globalist overlords in the WEF and UN, hundreds of thousands to millions of lives will be ruined each year, Dr. Scott McLaghalan says.

On Wednesday, Norman Fenton, Professor Emeritus at Queen Mary University of London, published an article describing how he lost control of his Twitter (now X) account to a hacker on 18 March but has now regained limited control.

“After sending a spam ‘vote for me’ direct message (with a malicious link) to all my mutual followers on 20 March, the attackers began posting spam publicly. Not sporadically, but continuously: the bot was posting roughly once per second, pausing only intermittently to repost content from accounts I follow. By the time I regained access, there were thousands of spam posts and reposts,” he said. “For now, anyone visiting my timeline will see little but pages of spam.”

Prof. Fenton ended his article by saying, “Regaining access to my account ultimately required persistence, external pressure, and, quite likely, legal escalation. Many users facing similar attacks will not have those options.

“If X cannot reliably protect accounts, respond promptly to verified compromise reports, and restore control without unnecessary barriers, then users are left dangerously exposed. 

“What’s clear right now is that when things go wrong, you will be largely on your own.”

Read more: I’ve regained control of my hacked X account, Norman Fenton, 25 March 2026

In response to Prof. Fenton’s experience, Dr. Scott McLachlan, formerly a lecturer in Digital Technologies for Healthcare at King’s College London, posted a Substack note taking Prof. Fenton’s final remarks a logical step further....<<<Read More>>>...

What social credit means to you and how it will change your life

 Social credit is a scheme designed to enable governments to control their citizens, and it is being implemented globally, with China being a prime example.

The system is being implemented Politicians, journalists, social scientists, masochists and communists talk about social credit as if it were a “good thing.”

“I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” said one. “It won’t be so bad. In fact, if you behave yourself, it will be a good thing.”

A programme promoting social credit on NBC News in the US stated that social credit pushes people to become better citizens. “You’re not going to be punished if you haven’t done anything wrong,” they said, ignoring the fact that it is the Government which decides the definition of wrong.

Well, if you are a fan of totalitarianism or communism, then I suppose social credit is a good thing.

However, there is no escaping the fact that social credit is a scheme designed to enable governments to control their citizens. Every new law and rule ties into the social credit system, which is now clearly the way in which the Great Reset will be turned into a practical reality. It is government policy everywhere to exhaust their citizens with a constant barrage of new rules and regulations (which are backed by force and therefore have the power of law).

And although all this may sound like futuristic science fiction, it isn’t. Social credit is here, and it is growing by the minute.

Take a look at precisely how social credit operates in China. various countries, including Holland, Denmark, Ireland, Iran and India. And similar systems are already in place in countries such as the UK, New Zealand, Italy, Ukraine, France, Canada, Austria, Germany, Russia, Zimbabwe and Thailand.

These systems often involve digital IDs, vaccine passports, and tracking of citizens’ behaviour. The goal is to control behaviour and replace democracy with artificial intelligence-driven decision-making. It is all part of The Great Reset....<<<Read More>>>...

BritCard was a smokescreen; UK government has not shelved plans for compulsory digital IDs

The UK government confirmed it is scrapping the mandatory requirement for digital ID cards by 2029 – those opposing digital IDs celebrated. However, the devil is in the details.

The government has only scrapped the “BritCard” scheme; it is still proceeding with plans to require some form of digital identification.

“By using the BritCard deception to misrepresent digital identity, the government provided the people with a loathed bogeyman they could easily defeat. The evident ploy was supposed to lull the people into accepting their digital identities by convincing them they had successfully rejected the fake BritCard version of digital ID,” Iain Davis writes.

UK social media was alight a couple of days ago (at the time of writing) with various individuals and groups congratulating each other, and even taking credit, for forcing the Labour government into an ignominious “climb-down” or embarrassing “U-turn” on digital ID.

A tiny gaggle of politicians patted themselves on the back for defeating the government, claiming “mandatory digital ID is dead.” Popular talking heads were thanking their “fellow activists” for showing the government what “people power really means” and various “independent media” figures were effusing about the successful “push-back against digital ID.”

The message came through loud and clear. If we act in unison, the government has to listen and respond. The representative democratic system works. TRUST THE SYSTEM!

Unfortunately, the celebration was a bit premature because the great movement of the people, the millions of petition signatures, the protests and the stiff letters to Members of Parliament (“MP’s”) have made no difference whatsoever to the government’s push to enforce digital ID – digital identity – on all of us.

Speaking the day after propagandists ran countless articles and reports claiming “mandatory digital ID” had been shelved, Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament: “There will be checks. They will be digital and they will be mandatory.”...<<<Read More>>>....

Food for Thought #912

 

Digital ID is Dead. Now What?

 Another day another U-turn. It was only at the end of September that the Government claimed to be committed to mandatory digital right-to-work checks. Yet three short months later a Government source says that the compulsory element “was stopping conversation about what digital IDs could be used for generally”. Funny, that.

But now this impediment has been removed as the Government source claims, will the conversation proceed to a helpful conclusion? I doubt it. It’s stuck in an endless rehashing of clichés: ID ‘cards’, Chinese-style social credit system, a papers please society, a honey pot for hackers. The politics of digital ID are not sophisticated or even informed. The lack of a well thought through politics of digital ID cannot be blamed for the current mess. Guy de la Bédoyère’s account in the Daily Sceptic will be familiar to most of us, but could politics actually help? Having once again pressed the digital ID jack back into its box, we have an opportunity to improve our lot before it inevitably springs back into the national consciousness and we repeat the whole pantomime, yet again.

So, what position should those of us on the Right take? On what principles should we base that position? I believe it boils down to this: if we believe in property rights, then we need the means to prove ownership. The property in question is usually thought of in physical terms and the means of proof in that realm are well established. But what about the digital world? Those rights apply there too but the means to prove ownership are not well established and that puts those rights at risk. Less abstractly, there is only so far society can progress with a picture of a gas bill at its foundation. We need the means to prove our identity (and therefore ownership) in the digital realm not because it is mandated by a government that would just as soon have every one of us wearing multiple lanyards, but because it underpins the digital aspects of our society which we want to be fair, orderly and accountable. And we need it with, or preferably without, government....<<<Read More>>>...

BREAKING: Starmer Abandons Plans for Compulsory Digital ID

 Sir Keir Starmer has abandoned plans for mandatory digital ID for workers amid concerns that it will undermine public trust in the scheme, though a voluntary version is still expected. The Times has the story.

The Prime Minister had previously announced that the IDs would be compulsory to verify someone’s right to work in the UK.

Instead, they will be optional when they are introduced in 2029, with workers given the choice of whether to use other documents to verify their identity digitally instead.

A Government source said that the compulsory element “was stopping conversation about what digital IDs could be used for generally”.

The source said: “Stepping back from mandatory-use cases will deflate one of the main points of contention. We do not want to risk there being cases of some 65 year-old in a rural area being barred from working because he hasn’t installed the ID.”

In September Starmer said that he would “make a new, free-of-charge digital ID mandatory for the right to work before the end of this Parliament”. He said that “we need to know who is in our country” and that the IDs would prevent migrants who “come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally”.

Anyone starting a new job would have been required to “show” the digital ID, which would then be automatically checked against a central database of those entitled to work in the UK.

While right-to-work checks will still be mandatory other forms of documentation, such as an electronic visa or a passport, will be valid. A consultation to start within weeks will explore which verification checks could be used....<<<Read More>>>...

Digital ID, and the digitisation of all things, is the greatest risk humanity faces

 Gary D. Barnett warns that humanity is being taken over through digitisation, digital ID, algorithmic confinement and technocratic incarceration, which will lead to the end of freedom and property.

The transformation of mankind involves the intentional fusing of human and machine through neuroscientific nanoscale brain-computer interfacing, with methods including “vaccines,” geoengineering, mRNA platforms and precision medicine.

The only solution to stop this technological transhuman invasion, he writes, is through education, exposure and mass non-compliance.

I do not know how many more times I will have to bring up the subject of the AI takeover; digitisation, digital ID, algorithmic confinement and technocratic incarceration that are being built and advanced at a pace that is obviously far beyond the scope of the common American plebiscite. This is the most crucial issue of our lives, and it has mostly been relegated as one piece among a plethora of distractive tyrannical events, without any cognitive awareness whatsoever that the digital usurpation of our existence is the end of all freedom and property, and possibly the end of mankind as we know it. Even with survival, the only resulting conclusion is that all those remaining will be slaves of a master class of evil technocrats.

But it gets even worse, because this “new” digital existence also depends upon and includes the total weaponisation of “healthcare,” medicine and the long-planned technological transformation of mankind. This aspect of human domination is dependent on weakening or destroying the human body, mind and soul as it exists, in order to eliminate the human spirit through a eugenic strategy, while rebuilding compliant cybernetic organisms. (Cyborgs) Robotics immediately comes to mind, but it is much bigger than that; it is the intentional fusing of human and machine at multiple levels, including through neuroscientific nanoscale brain-computer interfacing. The preparation for this linking-up of human and computer is already highly developed....<<<Read More>>>...

Food for Thought #866

 

They Said it Was to Protect Kids. Now Your Passport’s on the Dark Web – and Your NHS Record is Next

On July 25th 2025, the Online Safety Act’s children’s safety duties came into force, and the British internet changed overnight. 

Parliament had intended to shield children from pornography, self-harm forums and algorithmic bullying. Instead, it required every major platform likely to be accessed by under-18s to implement “highly effective” age verification for harmful content, on pain of fines up to 10% of global turnover. 

Ofcom, newly armed with the powers of a financial regulator, wasted no time. Within hours, Reddit demanded facial scans or government ID for NSFW sections — those areas of the site marked ‘not safe for work’, containing adult material such as pornography or graphic imagery — Spotify locked explicit lyrics and music videos behind biometric checks, and Pornhub gated all UK access with ID checks. Within days, thousands of Spotify users faced account deletion. Safety? No. A national firewall was born.

The first crack appeared at dawn. Proton VPN, a Swiss service long recommended by the National Cyber Security Centre for its no-logs policy, recorded a 1,400% surge in British sign-ups minutes after midnight on July 25th. Google searches for ‘VPN UK’ followed the same curve. 

Three weeks later, the Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, was on BBC Newsnight declaring virtual private networks “an absolute loophole that needs closing“. Ofcom, reading the mood, issued guidance warning platforms that any encouragement of circumvention tools would be treated as a breach of duty. The message was clear, evasion was now a regulatory offence. The law that gated Pornhub just paved the way for your digital ID....<<<Read More>>>...

You and Your Body Parts Are the Missing Link Between Digital IDs, CBDCs, the Coming System of Control

 America’s largest bank has all the systems in place to track your movements, your spending, and your sustainability. And they’re doing it, not by the old plastic card in your wallet, but by biometric scanning devices to identify who’s in and out.

They’re already testing this on their own employees. On a small scale, JP Morgan Chase has equipped their new Manhattan HQ with all the equipment necessary to connect Biometric scanning with digital IDs, buying and selling.

You and your body parts are the last connecting factor for coming system of control.

Because your body consumes O2, food, and produces waste (that requires energy to manufacture), digital IDs are deemed necessary… for the sake of sustainability and security.

BiometricUpdate reports:

JPMorgan Chase’s new Manhattan headquarters will require biometric entry

“When employees begin reporting to JPMorgan Chase’s new Manhattan headquarters later this year, they will be required to submit their biometric data to enter the building. The policy, a first among major U.S. banks, makes biometric enrollment mandatory for staff assigned to the $3 billion, 60-story tower at 270 Park Avenue…

…Internal communications reviewed by the Financial Times and The Guardian confirm that JPMorgan employees assigned to the new building have been told they must enroll their fingerprints or undergo an eye scan to access the premises.

Earlier drafts of the plan described the system as voluntary, but reports say that language has quietly disappeared. A company spokesperson declined to clarify how data will be stored or how long it will be retained, citing security concerns. Some staff reportedly may retain the option of using a badge instead, though the criteria for exemption remain undisclosed.

The biometric access requirement is being rolled out alongside a Work at JPMC smartphone app that doubles as a digital ID badge and internal service platform, allowing staff to order meals, navigate the building, or register visitors....<<<Read More>>>...

The inevitable envelope: How your identity is becoming the new currency of control

 Visa and financial institutions are rapidly integrating mandatory biometric and digital ID systems into payment and access protocols.

This shift, marketed for security and convenience, consolidates personal data and enables constant transaction monitoring.

Implementation is expanding from high-value finance to employee building access and government services, reducing anonymity.

The move creates a global framework where every action can be permanently linked to a verified identity, posing a threat to liberty.

In a quiet but relentless march, the fundamental nature of personal identity and financial privacy is being rewritten. What was once an optional convenience is fast becoming a mandatory gateway to participation in modern society. The recent partnership between Visa and digital identity platform Proof to embed biometrically-backed IDs into transactions is just the latest maneuver in a broader campaign. 

This initiative, alongside JPMorgan Chase’s mandatory eyeball scans for employee entry and the IRS's mandate for digital verification, signals a pivotal shift. 

The "why" is a familiar refrain: enhanced security and fraud reduction.The "who" involves the world's largest financial institutions and tech firms. The "when" is now, with these systems being deployed throughout 2025. The "where" is everywhere—from online payments to your workplace to government services. And the "what" is the systematic construction of a global framework where anonymity is extinguished, and every swipe, click and step is permanently tethered to a verified, and often biometric, identity....<<<Read More>>>....