Age verificationPortable ultrasound scanner identifies underage victims, border-crossers

Published 24 January 2019

Human trafficking is a worldwide problem, and a serious crime. Researchers have developed a portable, non-invasive, ultrasound scanning device to identify underage victims trying to cross borders illegally. It was specifically designed as a means of uncovering, fighting and preventing human trafficking, but the German government is now exploring the use of the scanner to identify the age of asylum seekers.

Human trafficking, especially for the purposes of sex slavery, is a problem of international dimensions, even today. The victims are often underage girls and boys who are smuggled through border controls with fake ID papers that hide their real age. Having a technological solution capable of identifying such cases of fraudulent identity, for example at the borders of the European Union (EU), would do much to widen the scope for action by the authorities and help stop human trafficking. As part of the multidisciplinary PRIMSA research project, which develops prevention and intervention strategies to stop sex trafficking, Fraunhofer IBMT has developed a portable, handheld ultrasound scanning device to quickly identify underage victims of human trafficking.

Border control agents and police authorities are increasingly faced with the still great challenge of determining the age of young immigrants during routine inspections. Frauhofer notes that the only legal method available to them at present involves the use of ionizing X-rays to analyse their bone structure. But because such medical interventions are classified as invasive procedures, they cannot be carried out without a court order. In practice, therefore, the police are reluctant to go this far unless all reasonable doubt can be excluded.

Targeted age identification using ultrasound measurements
“Our handheld PRIMSA scanning system efficiently determines if a person has reached full legal age by means of ultrasound measurements – a non-invasive technique that can therefore be used without a court order whenever a case of fraudulent identity is suspected,” explains Dr. Holger Hewener, who heads the Working Group for Software Engineering and System Integration at Fraunhofer IBMT. “As a person ages, the wrist bones fuse and the cartilage is replaced with bone in a process referred to as ossification, leaving evidence of the person’ age in the growth plate. Our system makes use of this information by measuring and analysing the sound velocity of ultrasound waves as they pass through ossified areas of the wrist and the growth plates.” The skeletal features of most relevance to determining adulthood are the lower ends of the ulna and radius bones, which in women are usually fully developed by the age of 14 to 17 and 16 to 18, respectively. In men, this development process is normally completed by the age of 16/17 to 20. Consequently, especially in the case of young women, the degree of ossification of the growth plates is a significant indication of skeletal maturity.