What happened
The Australian Government's Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts commissioned the Age Assurance Technology Trial. The Age Check Certification Scheme ran it and tested Yoti's facial age estimation from 24 March to 20 June 2025. The testers sent more than 1,100 selfie portraits, plus images from schools, to Yoti's system and compared its estimates with true ages. In these lab tests, the mean absolute error was less than 2 years for ages 13 to 20. The testers called this strong performance for commercial systems used in retail. In school tests, they found good accuracy, with students within 2 to 3 years of a gate needing a further check. In the lab, more than half of 18-year-olds would have needed a further verification step at an 18+ gate. Most 12-year-olds passed a 13+ gate in the lab. The testers concluded that a buffer of at least 2 to 3 years is needed for reliable age gating. They rated the product at technology readiness level 9, as Yoti did.
Sources
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Assessment report, by authors with no tie to the system.
Age Check Certification Scheme for the Age Assurance Technology Trial. Age Estimation Test Report: YOTI. Dated 10 June 2025, version 1.1 of 21 July 2025 (archived copy). Evaluation Results, Table 2 and accompanying text.
In lab testing we observe a Mean Absolute Error of less than 2 years for ages 13 - 20, with a standard deviation of less than 1.3 years.
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Assessment report, by authors with no tie to the system. Context or contrary evidence.
Age Check Certification Scheme. Age Assurance Technology Trial, Part D: Age Estimation. August 2025 (archived copy). Its back cover names the department that commissioned the Trial. In section D.7.3 and Figure D.4.1 the Trial team describes the trained facial analysis models that age estimation providers use.
Commissioned by the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts, the Trial assessed 48 vendors and over 60 distinct technologies across various sectors, including social media, gaming, adult content and online retail.
Details
AI system
- Workflow
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The testers sent face images to Yoti's system and compared each estimated age with the subject's true age. They checked the results at 13+, 16+ and 18+ age gates, in the lab, in schools and with mystery shoppers.
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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A buffer of at least 2 to 3 years above the gate age is needed for reliable age gating. Users close to an age gate need a further age verification step.
Entry details
- Sector
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Online safety (age assurance).
- Purpose
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Yoti built its facial age estimation to estimate a person's age from a real-time face image for age checks.
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Cite this record
Peter H. Vartanian. (2026). Testers find Yoti age estimates within 2 years for ages 13 to 20 (AIBD-1016). Artificial Intelligence Benefits Database, edition of 1 November 2026. https://petervartanian.xyz/aibd/records/AIBD-1016.html (archived at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AADSII, version 7.0)