WHAT WAS CLAIMED
The UK government is introducing mandatory digital ID for babies and parents who refuse will face having their children seized.
OUR VERDICT
False. The UK government has not announced plans to extend digital ID to babies under the penalty of child seizure.
AAP FACTCHECK - The United Kingdom has not threatened to seize babies from parents who refuse to sign their children up for a digital ID scheme, despite social media claims.
While British tabloid The Daily Mail recently reported on cabinet talks about extending digital ID to babies, it is not UK government policy and there are no suggestions that officials are threatening to seize children under a mandatory scheme.
The UK government announced plans for a mandatory digital ID scheme for right-to-work checks last year to curb illegal employment. However, it has since said the scheme won't be compulsory.
The false claims have spread across Facebook and Instagram.
A widely shared Instagram video posted on January 6 shows a man describing the purported policy.
It includes a partially cropped caption suggesting the digital ID scheme is mandatory for newborns and that the UK government will seize children if parents don't comply.
"They're literally saying if you have a child and you don't get them a digital ID then they will take your child," the Instagram user says in the video.
"The nerve that these people have to say that they will do that is absolutely astonishing and the sad thing is that so many people are gonna fall for it."
The cropped caption in the Instagram video matches one contained in a viral Facebook post from January 4 that claimed the UK announced digital ID for babies.
"UK plans mandatory digital ID for newborn parents who refuse face jail and child seizure," the caption reads.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to introduce a digital ID system in September last year, with the government originally saying it will be required for right-to-work checks.
However, in January media reports said digital ID will not necessarily be mandatory for employment, but that existing ID requirements will be moved online by 2029.
This means people will still be able to use documents like passports for right-to-work checks, but they will need to upload them to the internet, according to a BBC report.
The government hasn't unveiled plans to expand the scheme to newborns, though a report in The Daily Mail on January 1 cited an unnamed source saying that proposal was discussed in a cabinet meeting.
There was no suggestion in the story that the government discussed seizing the children of parents who refused to sign their babies up to an expanded digital ID.
A government spokesperson told the tabloid it only proposed mandatory digital ID for right-to-work checks and in a hypothetical situation where children may be able to obtain digital ID, it would not be mandatory.
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