Home Office to trial AI-based age verification technology on child asylum seekers
22/07/2025 | The Guardian
The Home Office has said that it will pilot artificial intelligence (AI) to estimate the age of asylum seekers claiming to be children. Immigration Minister Angela Eagle announced on Tuesday that technology analysing facial features will be tested to offer a rapid, cost-effective method for age assessment, particularly in cases of dispute or uncertainty. The move reflects the government's increasing reliance on AI to address public service challenges without significant spending.
The decision coincides with a critical report by David Bolt, Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, highlighting inconsistencies in current age estimation methods.
In a written statement to parliament, Eagle said: "We have concluded that the most cost-effective option to pursue is likely to be facial age estimation, whereby AI technology – trained on millions of images where an individual's age is verifiable – is able to produce an age estimate with a known degree of accuracy for an individual whose age is unknown or disputed.
"In a situation where those involved in the age assessment process are unsure whether an individual is aged over or under 18, or do not accept the age an individual is claiming to be, facial age estimation offers a potentially rapid and simple means to test their judgments against the estimates produced by the technology."
The pilot scheme will test the effectiveness of the technology with a view to integrating it into official age verification checks next year.
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