Age verification is consuming internet. From social media bans in Australia to pornography restrictions in half of the US statesFor many, having to prove their age to access websites is becoming an everyday requirement. But one of the key technologies underpinning many of these age checks is about to leak into the offline world, with potentially life-changing consequences for people whose age is predicted by AI.
Starting next year, the British government plans to introduce facial age estimation, where AI scans your face and suggest how old are you—to help determine the age of asylum seekers arriving at the UK border. This measurement is believed to be the first time 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 incorrectly classified as adults, they may be stripped of some legal protections and placed in adult-only detention centres.
A WIRED investigation and lighthouse reportsworking with The Independent, obtained an internal UK government report detailing its testing of FAE technologies. It shows how the systems regularly confuse children with adults and appear to contain serious bias issues, directly impacting the largest group of migrants subject to age assessments in 2025, according to Home Office data. The research raises questions about the effectiveness of the technology and whether it should be implemented in such high-risk scenarios.
