If kids are lying about their age, YouTube will know about it. Or at least will try its best to find out. The streaming service announced Tuesday it’s rolling out age-estimation technology that will use various data to determine if someone is under the age of 18, and then use that signal “to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protections.”
Basically — assuming it works as it should — kids will not be able to access what YouTube deems as age-restricted content.
Google, YouTube’s parent company, announced in February that it would begin deploying this type of technology, which relies on AI, to determine users’ ages.
YouTube said it will test the machine-learning tech on a small set of users in the US to estimate their age. Some of the signals it will look at include “the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched or the longevity of the account.” After ensuring the age verification is working as intended, YouTube will then roll it out more widely.
Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of children’s online safety organization Enough is Enough, welcomed YouTube’s move toward age verification.
“It’s always encouraging to me as a veteran working in the internet safety space for over three decades to see big tech companies being proactive to better protect youth online,” Hughes told CNET. “Since the advent of social media, which began with age limits of 18 years and older then reduced to 13-plus with absolutely no age verification technologies in place, kids have learned to lie about their age to get on these platforms, including YouTube.”
Hughes said YouTube can take it a step further: “I also encourage YouTube to turn on safety defaults to block sexually explicit videos and advertising and other harmful content for all users under 18.”
YouTube’s age-verification move is another step in the growing age-verification push that is being hastened by the US and other governments trying to prevent children from accessing content deemed harmful, unhealthy and not appropriate for their age.
What happens when YouTube decides someone is under 18?
If its age-estimation system decides someone is under 18, YouTube will then:
- Disable personalized advertising.
- Turn on digital wellbeing tools.
- Add safeguards to recommendations, including limiting repetitive views of some content.
People who are actually adults but who have been wrongly identified as children will be able to verify that they are 18 or older by using a credit card or a government ID.
Hughes of Enough is Enough said that strong measures are needed to protect kids when it comes to their online use of YouTube videos and more.
“At EIE, we have encouraged turning on safety defaults — including filtering, monitoring and time-limiting controls — on all internet-enabled devices and platforms,” Hughes told CNET. “This simple step by big tech companies would greatly empower parents, who now must do this themselves on every device and every social media platform, which is overwhelming.”
