Rights group says facial age estimation cannot account for children who have aged prematurely from trauma and violence
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that the UK's recently announced plan to use artificial intelligence to help assess the ages of asylum seekers is "cruel and unconscionable".
As we reported on EIN last month, the Minister for Border Security and Asylum announced that the Home Office is to begin testing AI-driven facial age estimation technology as a new, cost-effective method for estimating the age of asylum seekers.
In a Dispatches piece published last week, HRW researchers Hye Jung Han and Anna Bacciarelli highlighted that facial age estimation tools have not been properly and independently tested in real-world scenarios. Where they have been tested, it is usually to estimate whether someone appears under 25, not to make the far more precise judgment of whether a person is under 18.
HRW explained: "AI face scans were never designed for children seeking asylum, and risk producing disastrous, life-changing errors. Algorithms identify patterns in the distance between nostrils and the texture of skin; they cannot account for children who have aged prematurely from trauma and violence. They cannot grasp how malnutrition, dehydration, sleep deprivation, and exposure to salt water during a dangerous sea crossing might profoundly alter a child's face."
HRW's researchers condemned the Home Office's plan, saying it is cruel and unconscionable to rely on such unproven, experimental technology to decide if a child qualifies for critical legal protections they urgently need.
Calling on the UK Government to scrap the plan, HRW urges the adoption of internationally recognised child protection standards, with age assessments used as a last resort where there are serious doubts about a person's declared age. It says in such cases, assessments should be carried out by professionals trained in child protection and trauma.