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.
Social media platforms that will require biometrics and digital IDs to be accessed will include:
- X (formerly Twitter)
- Snapchat
- TikTok
- YouTube
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.
Some might claim that some facial recognition software is 99% accurate. But this is under controlled environments with high-quality, cooperative images – i.e. under laboratory conditions. In real-world settings, the accuracy of facial recognition in sporting venues, for example, ranges from 36% to 87% depending on camera placement.
Coupled with facial recognition inaccuracies, social media platforms use artificial intelligence (“AI”) programmes to estimate user age through facial analysis. Apart from the “estimation” of age, AI programmes themselves are not accurate.
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