The UK government is set to deploy AI-powered facial age estimation technology to assess asylum seekers, despite internal reports revealing significant flaws and biases in the system. This controversial move, slated for next year, could misclassify children as adults, potentially stripping them of legal protections and leading to detention in adult facilities.
An investigation by WIRED and Lighthouse Reports uncovered an internal UK government document detailing tests of facial age estimation (FAE) systems. The report highlights that these systems frequently mistake children for adults and exhibit serious bias issues, particularly impacting Sub-Saharan African migrants, who are the largest group subject to age assessments in the UK. The system performed notably worse for Sub-Saharan Africans, with its estimations for females being off by an average of 4.6 years, meaning a 13-year-old could be wrongly identified as an 18-year-old.
Concerns are amplified by the disbandment of a scientific committee that was meant to advise the Home Office on age estimation methods. Former members describe the facial scans as "hideously inaccurate." This decision came as the government was exploring the AI technology, raising questions about transparency and the prioritization of expert advice. Years of data from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology have also consistently shown that FAE systems' accuracy is heavily dependent on race and image quality.
While a Home Office spokesperson stated that rigorous processes are in place and the technology is being tested as a modernizing measure, they also mentioned the committee was disbanded due to needing "different fields of expertise." The spokesperson assured that the technology would be an "additional" tool, not replacing human judgment, and that individuals would always be treated as children in cases of uncertainty. However, the Home Office has not provided specifics on how the technology will be used in real-world scenarios.
The UK government initially announced plans for FAE in July 2025, delaying the rollout to 2027. This technology, which analyzes facial features based on datasets of millions of faces, has seen wider adoption in online age verification. However, its accuracy can vary drastically due to factors like algorithm, gender, demographics, and image quality. The Home Office appears to have been aware of these potential problems, as indicated by the April 2025 internal report, which noted "substantial deviations" in performance for Sub-Saharan Africans and a tendency to overestimate the age of 17-year-olds.
Rights groups, like Foxglove, have strongly condemned the plan, calling the technology experimental, inaccurate, and racially biased. They, along with 61 other organizations, have urged the UK government to scrap its plans. Despite these concerns, the UK government reportedly spent over $400,000 on facial scanning technology from a German company, Cognitec, earlier this year. Analysis of public data on Cognitec's systems revealed significant misclassification rates for younger individuals, particularly those from West Africa, when using lower-quality photos.
