YouTube is introducing new artificial intelligence technology that can determine if or not users are indeed younger than 18 years of age, even if they input any birthday on their account. The Google-owned video-sharing platform announced Wednesday that it’s piloting an “age-estimation model” that would automatically impose safety features on younger users.
The move addresses a longstanding issue for social media platforms: adolescents have long been falsifying their age in order to access adult content and bypass parental filtering. YouTube’s AI will now analyze user behavior patterns to make its own determination regarding an individual’s actual age.
How the AI Detection Works at YouTube
YouTube’s age-validation system employs machine learning to scrutinize many signals from user accounts, such as activity patterns and account age. The firm hasn’t disclosed all the specific factors the AI takes into account, but it’s advanced enough to overrule whatever birthdays people have provided in their profiles.
“This technology will enable us to make an age inference of a user and subsequently leverage that signal, independent of the birthday on the account, to provide our age-relevant product experiences and protections,” said James Beser, senior director of product management for YouTube’s youth products, in a blog post.
The technology is not entirely new to YouTube. The company has been employing similar machine learning technology to approximate users’ ages in other markets “for some time” and asserts that it’s working well there.
What If You’re Flagged as Under 18
When YouTube’s AI determines a person is most likely under 18, several automatic changes become effective. Users are informed of the age estimation, and default teenage protections are enabled on their account.
These protections are quite robust. Teen users will view only non-personalized advertisements, i.e., fewer targeted advertisements based on their web surfing history. The app will also turn on “digital wellbeing” features by default, such as reminders to pause and bedtime reminders to promote healthy screen use.
The system also alters what content is available for teenagers. YouTube will reduce recommendations for videos that could be “problematic if watched in repeat” and block access entirely to age-restricted content that is intended for audiences 18 and older.
Options for Users Who Disagree
In case the AI on YouTube makes a mistake, users have the option to appeal. It will enable users to confirm their age using a government ID card, a selfie, or even a credit card to confirm they are adults. It is a platform for users who believe they have been misclassified.
The changes will also impact YouTube creators in some way. Anyone detected to be under the age of 18 by the algorithm will have video uploads made private, and they will lose monetization via gifts while live streaming vertically as well.
YouTube recognizes that this may have financial implications on some creators. “Some creators might see a change in views labeled as teens (under 18). This might lead to lost ad revenue since we only show non-personalized ads to these viewers,” the company explained.
But YouTube expects the overall impact to be minimal for most creators.
Beginning Small, Growing Afterwards
The launch is starting with only a “small set of users” in the United States while YouTube observes the performance of the system and collects feedback. The company will collaborate with creators at this testing phase to receive confirmation that alterations are positive to the entire platform ecosystem.
This conservative approach is sensible in light of the potential for false positives and false negatives when detecting age, having the potential to annoy users or fail to safeguard children who must be safeguarded.
YouTube presents this as part of its dedication to young people’s safety without sacrificing privacy. Instead of demanding invasive age verification as a condition, the AI operates behind the scenes to flag users who may require further protection.
“Families rely on YouTube to offer a safe and enriching experience, and we’ll continue to invest to safeguard their freedom to surf the web safely,” Beser wrote, framing the company as a pioneer on youth online safety.
