She said: "I was shocked. There was hardly anything there on his face. I was told that Sam had excessive facial hair. He wasn’t given any warning. He was just dragged out of his class. He was put in isolation. When I found out about this I was angry." The school explained the matter had been resolved and defended its policy of maintaining standards.

But Sam said the new addition to the school policy was ‘stupid’ and his school friends think it is ‘ridiculous’. A teacher took Sam out of his English class and told him that his facial hair was inappropriate. Sam said: "I was in my lesson and she said I had too much facial hair. I thought it wasn’t fair. I had never had a warning about it. He said other boys in the school had facial hair, but he was punished by spending two days in a different classroom."

The new rule about facial hair was recently put in to the school’s uniform policy, but today the policy could not be accessed on the school’s website because it was ‘being updated’. Sam now regularly shaves any hair he has on his chin and top lip with an electric razor because he does not want to be reprimanded again following last Monday’s incident.

Mrs Kent added: "He could get spots now, using an electric razor." Today the school’s headteacher Ian Walker told the Liverpool Echo: "The college has high standards in all that it does, as can be seen from last year’s Grade 1 Ofsted report. That report said that ‘the personal development and well-being of students is an outstanding feature of the school; it has a very caring and vibrant learning environment, and standards are exceptionally high.’"

Mr Walker added: "Parents are keen for us to maintain these standards and we therefore set great store by our policy on uniform and appearance, as outlined in the college planner. For a short time, Sam found himself at odds with that policy, but the matter was resolved. During that time, Sam continued to receive his full curriculum entitlement. I have invited Mrs Kent to come and speak with me about any related matters at a time convenient for her."

The company says it is 90 per cent accurate when scanning typical images which appear on social networking sites. Face.com has previously limited the availability of the software over concerns about invasion of privacy. But it has now released the Photo Finder software to developers building applications allowing people to search for anyone on the internet.

Gil Hirsch, chief executive of Face.com, told The Sunday Times: “We have launched a service that allows developers to take our facial recognition technology and apply it immediately to their own applications. The technology is already being used by 5,000 developers. You can basically search for people in any photo. You could search for family members on Flickr, in newspapers, or in videos on YouTube – but it would take a lot of processing power.”

The use of facial detection technology has only been used by the UK Border Agency. Google has a tool – Picasa – which allows users to organise their photos by tagging matching faces and Facebook uses Photo Finder. Supporters of the software, including the Red Cross, have said it could be used to track people lost in humanitarian disasters.

But there are strong concerns over the accuracy of the technology and its impact on privacy. Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, said: “I think this will make many people very uneasy. The regulators have been hugely behind the curve of protecting people’s privacy on the internet. We need to push for much tighter international rules.”

Daily Mail