The UK's Under-16 Social Media Ban Is Really About Your Face

From spring 2027, anyone under 16 in the UK is banned from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X and Snapchat, but to prove you're over 16, every adult might have to hand their face and photo ID to a private age-verification company you've never heard of. We need to talk about that. And about why Roblox somehow survived the purge. In this one: Keir Starmer's under-16 social media ban, age verification and facial age estimation, the privacy nightmare of biometric face scans and third-party ID checks, what Big Brother Watch and the "Stop Killing The Internet" campaign are actually warning about, why Australia's near-identical ban already flopped, and what Meta, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok had to say through gritted teeth. Plus: how to actually keep your data private, and why the Steam Controller has turned buying a gamepad into an 18-month religious pilgrimage.   / discord   #technews #SocialMediaBan #AgeVerification #OnlineSafetyAct #KeirStarmer #Privacy #UKPolitics #TechNews #SteamController