YouTube News

Ofcom said UK teens without ID risk losing social media access

YouTube is expected to face the same under-16 ban as TikTok and Instagram when UK rules take effect next spring.

Ofcom said on Thursday that about 150,000 sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds in Britain hold neither a passport nor a driving licence, leaving them at risk of being shut out of age-restricted social platforms when an under-sixteen ban arrives next spring. YouTube is expected to fall under the same scope as Australia’s restriction, which covers Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitch, Kick, Threads and X.

The UK online watchdog published an assessment of age-verification options for the ban. It named four methods as highly effective: matching official ID to a live selfie, a bank confirming an account holder’s age, an official digital ID service such as the Young Scot card, and estimating age from a selfie.

Ofcom said people without photo ID would likely need to obtain one to use those services, because facial age estimation can be wrong by several years. UK pornography sites have relied on that estimation for over-eighteen checks since last year, a pattern the regulator indicated social platforms may follow.

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive, said motivated children would seek to bypass the limits, as in Australia after its ban took effect in December 2025. Australia’s eSafety commissioner said a substantial proportion of children under sixteen had flouted the ban; a survey of 900 parents found about a third reported their children still held at least one social media account, compared with 49% before the law.

Dawes said the change would be a huge cultural shift for the UK. More than nine in ten Britons over sixteen already hold a passport or driving licence.