Google has developed an artificial intelligence system capable of estimating a person’s age using facial recognition technology. This technology, which has been approved in the UK, is poised to play a significant role in efforts to prevent children from accessing adult websites.
The system operates by using a phone camera to capture an image of a user’s face and then calculating their likely age based on biometric analysis. The development comes after the approval of a new Online Safety Bill that requires online publishers to implement age verification processes for access to mature content. The government regulator Ofcom (for “Office of Communications”) confirmed earlier this month that biometric age estimation could be used to verify that users are over the age of 18.
Google’s technology is said to be highly accurate, with a 99.9 percent reliability rate in determining that an individual aged 18 is younger than 25. However, Google has not publicly disclosed plans to use the technology, although the company is listed on the registry of providers approved by the Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) in the UK.
Approved in November, the age estimation system has a range of potential applications. It could be integrated into Google’s own services like YouTube and the Google Play app store, or even embedded in the Chrome web browser to help websites verify visitors’ ages.
The landscape for age assurance solutions in the United Kingdom is competitive. One major player is Yoti, which has been a vocal proponent of the Online Safety Bill, and offers its own identity platform that features support for age verification and estimation. And just a few weeks ago, Paravision and Persona announced that they had jointly developed an “age estimation and verification” tool of their own, gesturing to the UK as just one potential market for their solution.
Source: The Telegraph
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December 18, 2023 – by the Mobile ID World Editorial Team
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