“However, all the app stores we analysed currently rely on children self-declaring their age, with only a small number using additional checks in limited circumstances.”
The proposals put forward by Ofcom have sparked fury among campaign groups, who warned it was an attempt to usher in “a national ID system by the back door”.
Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo told The Telegraph: “Both the Government and Ofcom have admitted that children will get around the ban, which means the real effect will be normalising adults and children alike to handing over their passports just to get online.
“Hundreds of thousands of people without ID, who tend to be poorer people, and many more who don’t want to risk handing their passports over to foreign tech companies will be locked out of huge parts of the internet.
“The plan will kill anonymity online, whilst the UK’s culture of speech policing is reaching a crisis point. The policy is painfully misguided, an Orwellian assault on free speech and privacy, and will make children no safer at all.”
