UK Lowers E-Gate Age to 8, Opening 290 Border Gates to 1.5 Million More Children

2 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 14

From 8 July, children aged eight and nine returning to the UK can use e-gates if they are at least 120cm tall and accompanied by an adult.
The Home Office said cutting the minimum age from 10 will let up to 1.5 million more children use the system, aiming to speed family arrivals and shorten queues.
More than 290 e-gates are covered, including at 13 UK airports and juxtaposed border posts in Brussels and Paris.
Border Force said the change should free officers to focus on higher-risk travellers, while AirportsUK backed it as a way to reduce waiting times.
The expansion comes as the UK broadens digital border controls under its ETA scheme, after recent passport-scanning disruptions in parts of Europe raised summer delay concerns.

With children's faces changing, how will UK e-gates ensure accurate ID checks and avoid the chaos seen at EU borders?

What are the long-term privacy implications of creating a national biometric database of children as young as eight years old?