This AI Predicts How Old Children Are. Can It Keep Them Safe?

Yoti’s tech may be enticing for Big Tech companies: It works out if you’re under or over 13, the age most social media platforms require to create an account.

PREDICTING HOW OLD someone is based only on how they look is incredibly hard to get right, especially in those awkward early teen years. And yet bouncers, liquor store owners, and other age-restricted goods gatekeepers make that quick estimation all the time.

Their predictions are often wrong. Now London-based digital identity company Yoti believes its AI-powered age estimation can predict how old someone is if they’re aged anywhere from 6 to 60. For the first time, it claims, it can accurately determine whether children are under or over 13, the minimum age many social media firms require their users to be.

Read more