You need a security clearance

of sorts to get a mobile phone. By that I mean you have to provide some form of photographic ID.
Most adult humans in this country would use their driver's licence. I don't have a driver's licence. I do have a "proof of age" card with a photograph on it. It makes me look something like a human rather than a cat. I also have a passport.
Yes, please note I have two forms of "photo ID". I also used the passport as ID to get the "proof of age" card. 
I know I am not a terrorist and I doubt anyone else believes I am but I still need to provide that photographic ID to get a mobile phone number.
And I also need an "activation code". Youngest Nephew was in and out briefly on Friday and we thought we had all this sorted out...but none of us could read the activation code. It was printed so badly that, even with a magnifying glass none of  us could work it out. We gave up. Today I will have to try and get a new activation code. 
All this is designed to "stop terrorists" or something like that. It doesn't of course. The events of the last few days have shown that in a particularly shocking and terrifying way.  A friend in New Zealand has just left a message saying that her family in Christchurch, while traumatised, is coping. 
All the same I wonder about the long term effect on people more closely associated with the event. You can't keep that sort of information entirely away from children. You can think you have educated them into accepting cultural differences and the like but does it always work? One of my local Muslim friends told me, "We are partly to blame. We keep ourselves a bit isolated and don't mix as much as we should." It's an interesting thought.
But the proof of identity requirements for getting a mobile phone number are pretty well meaningless. It would be the work of a moment for someone bent on evil to obtain access to the network without proof.  They would simply need temporary access to an acceptable document. Then you can do the whole thing via the internet. There are multiple other ways to do it as well.
It has been easier for me to obtain more than one security clearance to view other documents than it has been to get a phone number. It makes no sense at all.