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World Service,28 Oct 2016,9 mins

Child Marriage and Dangerous Algorithms

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Is a girl under the age of 15 married every seven seconds somewhere in the world? That is what the charity Save the Children claim in their attempts to raise awareness of child marriage. But how is this figure calculated? We take a look at the difficulties with counting child brides. Data scientist and activist Cathy O’Neil wants to protect you from dangerous, and often hidden, algorithms. They help make important decisions, like whether you are eligible for a loan, but they could be based on unfair statistics with hidden biases. She talks about her new book Weapons of Math Destruction. (Photo: Algorithm code. Credit: Shutterstock)

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