The UK government claims its social media ban for under 16s is about protecting children.

Broadcaster Bev Turner described the policy as “the creaking of a digital cage door dressed up as a welcoming velvet rope.”

Ministers are using child safety to roll out age verification that could force facial scanning and digital identity checks on everyone ... not just kids.

This is how surveillance and control get sold as child protection while building systems that give the state and corporations unprecedented power over people’s lives.

My latest piece in Forbes.

@Derek Ross @Kubo.watch

https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2026/06/17/uks-under-16-social-media-ban-risks-digital-id-expansion/