YouTube is one of the most popular online platforms in the U.S. among all age groups. But not all content on the video-sharing site is appropriate for all ages.
While the platform, like most, has restrictions on certain content, such as violence and nudity, for users under 18, these safeguards have in the past been easy for young users to circumvent by entering an older birthdate on their account.
But now, the company is rolling out an artificial intelligence-powered tool to estimate a user’s age based on their activity on the platform “and then use that signal, regardless of the birthday in the account, to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protection,” said James Beser, director of product management at YouTube Youth, in blog post last month.
The technology, according to Beser, has been used in other markets “for some time” and will begin being tested in the U.S. on Wednesday before a wider rollout.
“We’re proud to again be at the forefront of introducing technology that allows us to deliver safety protections while preserving teen privacy,” Beser said. “Families trust YouTube to provide a safe and enriching experience, and we’ll continue to invest to protect their ability to explore safely online.”
Here’s what to know about YouTube’s plans to estimate the ages of American users.
How the AI-powered tool works
According to Beser, the model will “interpret a variety of signals” from users to estimate their age. These include, he says, “the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched, or the longevity of the account.”
If the model flags that a user is under 18, YouTube will automatically apply age-specific protections. These include disabling personalized advertising, turning on digital wellbeing tools like reminders to take breaks and go to bed, and installing safeguards to recommendations such as limiting repeated exposure to certain types of content.
“We will only allow users who have been inferred or verified as over 18 to view age-restricted content that may be inappropriate for younger users,” Beser said.
According to a support forum on parent company Google, YouTube won’t require all users to upload their IDs. But if the model wrongly estimates that a user is underage, they will be able to verify that they are 18 or older through a credit card, a selfie, or a government-issued ID. Users deemed underage can choose not to upload these, though protections for teens would remain in place.
The new model may also have a “limited impact” on creators, according to the same forum. If a user is identified as a teen, YouTube may set their uploads as private by default and may restrict their ability to earn from gifts on vertical live streams. “This may result in a decrease in ad revenue,” said a YouTube employee, “since we only serve non-personalized ads to those viewers.”
Why is YouTube doing this?
With teenagers constantly finding ways to get around age restrictions, platforms like YouTube are facing increasing political pressure in the U.S. to do more in protecting minors through stricter measures.
In June, the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional a Texas law that required age verification for websites hosting sexually explicit content. Some states have also introduced laws that order restrictions on social media for minors. And the bipartisan-backed Kids Online Safety Act, which would require platforms to take greater steps to minimize harm to minors, was reintroduced this year in Congress.
It’s also part of a broader global trend. In Australia, the government is moving towards a nationwide ban of children under 16 from social media (YouTube included), and has also introduced age checks for search engines. In the U.K., an Online Safety Law targeting adult sites requires users to confirm their ages, though non-adult platforms like Spotify, Reddit, and X have reportedly also sought age verification from users.
Some of these policies, however, have hit legal snags primarily over concerns about privacy and free speech.
What are the implications and concerns?
Age-estimation technology, according to internet civil rights group Center for Democracy & Technology, may deprive some users from technology they should be able to access. For example: “Should an adult be misclassified as a child user simply because they watch a lot of roleplay game reviews on YouTube, they will have to choose between appealing the decision by the service and uploading their ID or foregoing access to the service entirely.”
YouTube’s age-estimation plan is also under scrutiny over potential privacy infringement: a Change.org petition against the rollout has collected over 68,000 signatures to date.
The petition says that “mass surveillance and data control” are at stake, since the age estimation model analyzes users’ viewing behaviors and watch history. It also argues that the move by YouTube could set a dangerous precedent: “Once these systems are normalized, they rarely go away—they expand. If we don’t speak up now, we risk losing our ability to browse, create, and enjoy content freely. This is about more than YouTube. This is about digital freedom.”
The post YouTube to Start Using AI to Estimate Users’ Ages. Here’s What to Know appeared first on TIME.
