UK Plans to Use Flawed Facial Age Estimation on Asylum Seekers Despite Known Accuracy Problems

The British government plans to introduce facial age estimation (FAE) technology at its borders starting next year to help determine the age of asylum seekers, marking the first known use of AI-powered age prediction in such a consequential context. Many asylum seekers arriving in the UK lack documents proving their age, and misclassification has severe consequences: children incorrectly identified as adults can lose legal protections and be placed in adult-only detention centers.

An investigation by WIRED and Lighthouse Reports, in collaboration with The Independent, obtained a leaked internal Home Office report documenting the government's tests of FAE technologies. The findings reveal significant problems: the systems regularly mistake children for adults and exhibit substantial racial bias. For female Sub-Saharan Africans—the largest group of migrants entering the UK via small boats and subject to the most age assessments—the technology's margin of error averages 4.6 years, meaning a 13-year-old girl could be assessed as an 18-year-old adult. The report analyzed the best-performing algorithm among seven tested by the Home Office, suggesting broader performance issues across systems evaluated.

Experts and former government advisors have raised serious concerns about deploying the technology. Tim Cole, an emeritus professor of medical statistics at University College London's Institute of Child Health and former member of a scientific committee that advised the Home Office, described the face scans as "hideously inaccurate." The Home Office disbanded this advisory committee while exploring the FAE program, despite its members' attempts to highlight the technology's inadequacies. Independent testing by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology has similarly demonstrated that FAE accuracy varies significantly based on the race of the person being analyzed and photograph quality.

The Home Office has defended the initiative, stating it has "rigorous processes in place" and is "working to modernize" age verification through facial age estimation, characterizing it as an "additional" tool rather than the sole determinant. The spokesperson attributed the scientific committee's closure to the need for "different fields of expertise." The move reflects a broader global trend of governments adopting increasingly stringent anti-migrant policies while investing billions in surveillance technology often deployed against vulnerable populations with limited knowledge of how it works or mechanisms to challenge it.