Social media ban will mean the introduction of Digital ID via the back door: Farage
Key Points
- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says the government's under-16 social media ban is well-intentioned but will not work.
- He argues mass VPN use will let users, including children, bypass the ban's age checks.
- Farage claims the required age verification amounts to Digital ID introduced by the back door.
- He says the better solution is limited-feature handsets designed for children.
- The intervention follows the government's 15 June announcement and its earlier, watered-down digital ID scheme.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has warned that the government’s planned social media ban for under-16s will fail because of mass VPN use and amount to the introduction of Digital ID by the back door.
Farage’s comments come after Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall confirmed plans to bar platforms including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook and X from serving under-16s, as HotMinute reported.
“Whilst the social media ban is well-intentioned, it’s unlikely to work given the mass adoption of VPNs,” Farage wrote. “It will also mean the introduction of Digital ID via the back door. The real answer here is handsets for children with limited features.”
The VPN problem
Farage’s first objection points to a pattern already visible in the UK.
When the Online Safety Act’s age-verification rules took effect on 25 July 2025, VPN demand surged, with ProtonVPN reporting a sign-up increase of more than 1,400% and VPN apps featuring heavily in Apple’s UK App Store charts.
VPNs mask a user’s location, letting them appear to be browsing from outside the UK and sidestep age checks. Ofcom’s chief executive has acknowledged that the Act cannot prevent VPN use.
The government has said it will introduce highly effective age assurance to support the new ban and make safeguards harder to bypass, and Ofcom will run a rapid study on what counts as effective age verification for confirming whether a user is over 16.
Farage’s argument is that determined users, including children, will simply route around those checks.
The Digital ID claim
Farage’s second point ties the ban to the wider fight over digital identity.
Critics argue that verifying the age of every user at scale ultimately requires confirming identity, whether through ID documents, banking data or facial estimation, which they say nudges the country towards a national digital ID system by default rather than by open debate.
The government announced a digital ID scheme in September 2025, initially as a mandatory requirement to prove the right to work and framed as part of efforts to tackle illegal Channel crossings.
After heavy opposition, including a parliamentary petition that gathered almost 3 million signatures, the government confirmed in January 2026 that a government-issued digital ID would no longer be mandatory for right-to-work checks, and published a consultation on the scheme in March 2026.
Farage has been one of its loudest opponents, branding the plan an “anti-British card” that Reform UK would scrap.
Farage’s proposed solution shifts the focus from platforms to devices, calling for handsets sold for children to ship with limited features rather than full smartphone access.
The approach mirrors a growing parental movement towards basic phones and “kid-safe” devices, and sidesteps the age-verification and identity questions that dominate the platform-level debate.
