to wonder what the point of children's ID cards/passports are?

[Psammead]

We're not in the UK anymore, maybe the laws are different there, so forgive me if this is not quite accurate for the majority of readers.

Our DD is 11 weeks old. She needs an ID card or a passport in order to travel within the EU, which we plan on doing over summer.

We filled in the form and got the photo done (the photo is on my profile so you can see what I mean) and took it to the town hall. Once there I asked when we'd have to update certain information on the card such as her height, eye colour and the photo, all of which will be or may be non-representative of my DD in a couple of months time.

We were told that the ID card was valid for 6 years and does not need to be updated in that time.

What's the point, then? In a few years time, what airport official is going to be able to look at a picture of an 11 week old baby and say for sure that the four year old standing in front of them is the same person?

I just don't really see the point of them having their own ID cards. Small children are obviously not going to be terrorists and the current system offers absolutely no safeguard against the child being smuggled out of a country with a fake passport - so why not just have a child on the parent's passport?

What if you became ill, needed to be hospitalised, your other half couldn't take so much time off work, so you wanted her to be collected and taken away for a few weeks by another relative? That's a case for having separate documents.

I agree that the amount of time they are valid is ridiculous. UK passports for babies are good for 5 years. My son travelled on his about 2 months after he got it and he already didn't look like his picture!

But Cantsupinate has a valid point as well.

I just think they should need to be updated more frequently, but not charge for the update.

YANBU I can't think of a situation where a child younger than about 8 - 10 would need to travel internationally without a parent. If there was some kind of emergency where dd needed to travel to another country and I was in hospital then I would either cancel the trip or if it was essential then I would expect dh to get the time off.