If you want to buy kitchen knives online at John Lewis, you’ll need to convince AI you’re over 18.
The retailer took sharp knives offline over 15 years ago in 2009, and went a step further in 2022 to remove cutlery knives too, because it was too difficult to verify the age of customers.
They have now listed all knives again, because they say they’re confident they can now verify age accurately using artificial intelligence.
It comes during a national debate about stricter checks on buying knives, after Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was able to purchase the murder weapon he used to kill three young girls as well as other knives on Amazon, despite being 17.
The facial age estimation technology used by John Lewis is powered by Yoti, which claims to be better than a human at ascertaining age.
When people put knives in their basket, they will be informed they must be willing to use their device’s camera to prove their age.
They will need to place their face within an outline using their front facing camera, in a similar way to if you use a machine to take a passport photo.
The software then analyses the image, saying ‘Estimating age’ and then ‘Deleting scan’.
You don’t get to find out what age it actually thinks you are, but if you’re deemed to be an adult you will be able to go on and pay.
Additionally, a second age check asking for photo ID will be done on delivery by he Royal Mail or DPD driver when the knives are sent out.
All images taken for the check are immediately deleted, with no photos stored or shared, Yoto says.
The tech was developed to guard against spoofing, to prevent children just holding up a photo of an adult to the camera, wearing a mask, or using a deepfake.
Yoti says it can correctly estimate the age of 13-24 year olds within two years of accuracy – better than human judgement.
The True Positive Rate for 13-17 year olds correctly estimated as under 21 is 99.3% across gender and skin tone, it claims.
A White Paper last year acknowledged it was less effective when considering dark skin, but only marginally so, with accuracy rates ranging from 99.8% (lightest) to 99.2% (darkest).
A John Lewis spokesperson said: ‘We take safety incredibly seriously, and in line with strict government guidelines, have added an additional layer of security when customers purchase knives online.
‘By adding facial age estimation at checkout, we can help customers buy from our range of knives while making sure they aren’t purchased by anyone under the age of 18.’
The current law states that retailers must verify the age of the customer before selling a knife and, for those bought online, at the point of collection or delivery.
But the government has vowed to go further, and has promised new laws which could see retailers forced to ask anyone buying a knife for two types of ID.
Buyers could be asked to submit an official document, such as a passport or driving licence, and also record a live video to prove their age, the BBC reported.
An Amazon spokesman said: ‘We take our responsibility around the sale of all age-restricted items – including bladed products – extremely seriously and have launched an urgent investigation in relation to this tragic case.
‘We use trusted ID verification services to check name, date of birth and address details whenever an order is placed for these bladed items.
‘We have an age verification on delivery process that requires drivers to verify the recipient’s age through an app on their devices before handing over a parcel containing an age-restricted item.’
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