Pubs in Australia deal with fake digital IDs; in the UK, disappointment

The owners and staff of pubs in Queensland, Australia are seeing a marked increase in the fake IDs presented by teenagers. The growth in fakes is dominated by IDs in the form of mobile driver’s licenses, as the country continues to grapple with the fallout from states’ decisions to use physical security features for digital credentials.

At least in Australia, some pubs are still accepting digital IDs. In the UK, a government promise that patrons would be able to prove their age at pubs with digital ID by Christmas of this year seems likely to be broken.

The use case has long been considered a promising one for introducing people fearful of digital privacy risks to reusable digital IDs, which are shaking up the industry, as explained in the 2025 Digital Identity Verification Market Report and Buyers Guide from Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence.

A learning curve for digital ID acceptance

The manager of a pub in Bundaberg, Queensland, told ABC News that after seeing a single fake ID over the past 15 years, his establishment is now finding multiple each week.

The problem is that they tend to pass a manual, visual inspection.

“At a first glance, they all look legitimate, but the only way you can definitely check is using the Queensland government’s Verifier app to make sure that it is actually a legitimate licence,” Sugarland Tavern Manager Chris Simons told the ABC.

The issue caught the attention of the ABC earlier this year, when a cybersecurity professor and CEO told the outlet that visual seals like those implemented in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland’s mDLs are “not a security feature.”

Queensland advises that its pulsing government logo only be used for identity verification in low-risk scenarios.

The pubs in Queensland are pointing south, to neighboring New South Wales, as the source of the digital fakes.

Queensland’s mDL was developed by Thales, and meets the ISO/IEC 18013-5 standard, which allows relaying parties to perform ID verification by scanning the credential’s QR code with the free verifier app.

As such, ABI research held up the Queensland mDL as a potential model for global deployment of digital IDs earlier this year.

NSW completed the development of its mDL prior to the publication of the standard, but it is expected to take steps toward aligning with the standard as the state overhauls its licensing system. In the meantime, some pubs in Queensland have stopped accepting mDLs from their neighboring state altogether.

A learning curve for digital ID regulation

In the UK, the success of the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF) prompted then-Technology Secretary Peter Kyle to announce at the end of last year that Britons would be able to use a certified digital identity on their phone to prove their age at a pub by Christmas of 2025.

“Earlier this year, the Home Office announced they would be updating the law to allow for the use of DVS for alcohol purchases in England and Wales,” said the Office for Digital Identities & Attributes (OfDIA) in a blog post in September. “We expect changes to be in place by the end of the year, and are currently focusing our efforts on the requirements, to keep these checks safe and secure.”

But with a month remaining until that deadline, time is running short for the necessary statutory changes.

The question of when this potentially popular use-case for digital ID will arrive at UK pubs came up at Yoti’s latest monthly board meeting.

“The Board is bound to ask me to give an educated guess as to when the law will have changed,” CEO Robin Tombs wrote on LinkedIn. “My answer – probably (>50 percent) in Q1 26, possibly (<50 percent) in Q2 26.

“It could be even later but my guess is that it will get increasingly embarrassing during 2026 for the Govt, Home Office & OfDIA to try & champion the benefits of digital ID if they can’t show they can give a real first big benefit to 10s of millions of British adults to choose a certified digital ID to share Over 18 to buy alcohol.”

The statutory instrument “is really not that complicated,” says Richard Oliphant, a legal consultant to digital identity providers, in reply.

“Why the delay? Is the Cabinet Office getting cold feet because Starmer has announced a consultation on a mandatory digital ID?” Oliphant asks.

“Or, more worryingly for the DIATF community, is the delay down to the fact that the government and its advisers want UK boozers to use the GOV.UK Wallet to prove their age?

“Whatever the reason, the optics are bad for the government and it just erodes trust in their ability to deliver on their policy/legislative promises.”

Article Topics

age verification  |  Australia  |  digital ID  |  identity verification  |  mDL (mobile driver's license)  |  Richard Oliphant  |  UK digital ID  |  Yoti