Britain promised kids would be safe online… then a BBC-covered study says Instagram “teen accounts” are still riddled with self-harm content. Thirty out of forty-seven “protections” either don’t work or quietly vanished. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer is pitching a shiny new digital ID — the BritCard — which sounds less like policy and more like a loyalty program for surveillance.
So this week we ask: is any of this actually about safety… or just about getting you used to flashing a barcode to exist?
What’s inside
Kids & the internet: Age checks that feel like carnival games. The apps say “verified,” kids say “lol ok.”
BritCard 101: Sold as border control… designed as a database. What could possibly go wrong (besides… everything).
Canada’s chaos (the good kind): Our patchwork of driver’s licences, photo cards, GCKey logins, and vibes. Inefficient, yes. Terrifying, less so.
Parenting in 2025: You can’t bubble-wrap the internet… but you can have the conversation before the algorithm does.
Cameos: Politics in the Pen, a minister accidentally stealing my water, and Lisa blushing at the mention of Sean Fraser. Professional journalism.
The takeaway
If “protections” don’t protect, and IDs don’t solve the problem they’re sold for, maybe the product isn’t safety. Maybe the product is infrastructure… and the use-cases arrive later.
🎧 Listen: From Safety Codes to BritCards
📺 Watch: Video for paid subscribers
If the BritCard ever comes with a free sausage roll at Greggs, I’ll reconsider… but until then: less databases, more common sense.
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to BRITTLESTAR to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
