The UK wants under-16s off social media. Every engineer in the thread asks the same thing: how (manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
Britain is moving toward an age threshold of 16 for social media, built on the Online Safety Act that already lets Ofcom fine platforms. Australia switched on its own under-16 ban in December 2025, so the UK has a live precedent to copy.
The catch is mechanical: 'highly effective age assurance' means face-scan estimation or photo-ID at sign-up. As one games-industry engineer put it, the IDs don't go to the government, they go to verification vendors like Persona and Yoti, who then confirm to Meta and ByteDance exactly who you are.
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