Last night we flew back into the country after having a short break. Stanstead now has a number of automated face recognition passport control gates with signs stating anyone who is over 12 and has a chipped passport can go through. My DD went through at the same time I did. My 15 year old son who went next however; was not so lucky. While his passport was issued after he had turned 12 with a current photo; the machine would not recognise his face. We tried several times but nothing. At the same time, the exact same issue was happening to another teenage boy next to him whose parents had already passed through. The staff at passport control would not allow me back through and told my son that he would need to go on his own to see a passport official. Passport control staff did not assist my son and my son now found himself trying to gain access back into the country on his own without a parent.
Passport control stated that the machines were not working well; however it appears that the issue for teenagers and in particular boys that their faces change a great deal from when they are 12/13 and that by they time they are 15/16, they do not appear the same which then leads to the machines not recognising teenagers faces. To compound matters, if parents go through first and there is an issue as I have found, passport control will not let you go back to then ensure your child in fact enters the country. It was an extremely upsetting situation for our family and one that I hope no other parent and child has go through.