Make verified ID a requirement for opening a social media account.
This petition gathered 696,955 signatures between 5 March 2021 and 5 September 2021, according to the Parliament petitions site. The Government responded on 5 May 2021. MPs debated it in Westminster Hall on 28 February 2022.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Make verified ID a requirement for opening a social media account.
Make it a legal requirement when opening a new social media account, to provide a verified form of ID. Where the account belongs to a person under the age of 18 verify the account with the ID of a parent/guardian, to prevent anonymised harmful activity, providing traceability if an offence occurs.
My son Harvey is disabled. He is also the kind and gentle son of a person regularly in the public eye. The Online Harms Bill doesn’t go far enough in making online abuse a specific criminal offence and doing what ‘Harvey’s Law’ intended. To make the law work needs the removal of anonymity to ensure that users cannot cause harm by using online platforms to abuse others. Where an offence has taken place they ought to be easily identified and reported to the police and punished. We have experienced the worst kind of abuse towards my disabled son and want to make sure that no one can hide behind their crime.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 5 May 2021. Its summary:
The Online Safety legislation will address anonymous harmful activity. User ID verification for social media could disproportionately impact vulnerable users and interfere with freedom of expression.
The opening 346 words of the 701-word response:
The government recognises concerns linked to anonymity online, which can sometimes be exploited by bad actors seeking to engage in harmful activity. However, restricting all users’ right to anonymity, by introducing compulsory user verification for social media, could disproportionately impact users who rely on anonymity to protect their identity. These users include young people exploring their gender or sexual identity, whistleblowers, journalists’ sources and victims of abuse. Introducing a new legal requirement, whereby only verified users can access social media, would force these users to disclose their identity and increase a risk of harm to their personal safety.
Furthermore, users without ID, or users who are reliant on ID from family members, would experience a serious restriction of their online experience, freedom of expression and rights. Research from the Electoral Commission suggests that there are 3.5 million people in the UK who do not currently have access to a valid photo ID.
The online safety regulatory framework will have significant measures in place to tackle illegal and legal but harmful anonymous abuse. Services which host user-generated content or allow people to talk to others online will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content, including criminal anonymous abuse. Major platforms will also need to set out clearly what legal anonymous content is acceptable on their platform and stick to it. The government will set out priority categories of legal but harmful material in secondary legislation.
Users will also be better able to report harmful content, and expect to receive an appropriate response from the company. This may include, for example, the removal of harmful content, or sanctions against offending users. Compliance with the online safety framework will be enforced by Ofcom, who will have a suite of powers to use against companies who fail to fulfil the duty of care. These include fines on companies - of up to £18m or 10% of annual global turnover - and business disruption measures. The Online Safety Bill, which will give effect to the regulatory framework outlined in the full government response, will be ready this year.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 2,330, came from Battersea.
691,014 of the signatures were from the UK and 5,941 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| Battersea | 2,330 |
| Tooting | 2,140 |
| Salford and Eccles | 2,043 |
| Streatham | 1,888 |
| Manchester Central | 1,854 |
| Vauxhall | 1,809 |
| Hertford and Stortford | 1,767 |
| Bristol South | 1,720 |
| Chelmsford | 1,685 |
| Bristol West | 1,645 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| South East | 101,904 |
| North West | 83,833 |
| London | 80,079 |
| East of England | 68,982 |
| South West | 56,017 |
| West Midlands | 55,848 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 55,112 |
| East Midlands | 47,332 |
| Scotland | 36,247 |
| North East | 29,444 |
| Wales | 28,781 |
| Northern Ireland | 10,549 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on 28 February 2022. Read the debate in Hansard. House of Commons Library debate pack.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/575833.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
54430d126f9d2ae3… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.