Age verification is consuming the internet. From a ban on social media in Australia to a ban on porn in half of the US states, proving one’s age to access websites is becoming an everyday requirement for many people. But one of the key technologies underpinning many of these age checks is about to enter the offline world – with potentially life-changing consequences for people with age predicted by AI.
Starting next year, the British government is planning to introduce facial age assessment – where AI scans your face and tells you how old you are – to help determine the age of asylum seekers arriving at the United Kingdom border. The move is believed to be the first time that the so-called facial age estimation (FAE) system has been used in this way. Many asylum seekers arriving in the UK will not have documents proving their age, and if children are wrongly classified as adults, they may be denied some legal protections and held in adult-only detention centres.
An investigation by WIRED and Lighthouse Reports in collaboration with The Independent has obtained an internal UK government report detailing trials of FAE technologies. It shows how the system routinely mistakes children for adults and involves serious bias problems, which will directly affect the largest group of migrants subject to age assessment in 2025, according to Home Office figures. The investigation raises questions about the effectiveness of the technology and whether it should be deployed in such high-risk scenarios.
Read full article
notes
<a href