Age verification on the internet used to be a bit of a joke. The whole thing worked on the honor system, and few of us kept our honor. YouTube might be for users 13 and up, but that's not going to stop an 11 year old from watching.
But that internet is rapidly being left in the past. Depending on where you live, some sites and services are verifying the ages of their users, most through mandatory ID checks. Now, YouTube is joining the party, by employing AI to guess how old you are.
How YouTube's AI age verification works
In a blog post on Tuesday, YouTube announced it would start rolling out “machine learning” (read: AI) to a small pool of users over the coming weeks, specifically to estimate how old they are. YouTube wants to identify whether a user is a teen or an adult. (Remember: YouTube intends for its service to be used only by users 13 and up, and assumes any users younger than that are on YouTube Kids.)
The AI does not necessarily pay attention to the age listed in the account, as YouTube assumes some users might be misrepresenting how old they are. Rather, these new programs look at identifying habits that are associated with age groups. That includes things like the types of videos a user might be searching for, the style of video they've been watching, or how old the account is.
If YouTube's AI determines that the user is an adult, that user can continue to use YouTube as they normally would. However, should the AI infer that the user is a teen, the site will implement “age-appropriate” protections. If your account is flagged as a teen account by the AI, you can expect the following:
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No more personalized advertising: YouTube will still show you ads, but they won't be targeted to you based on your ad profile, so you'll be less likely to click on ads.
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Digital wellbeing tools: These include reminders to take a break from YouTube, a breakdown of how much time you've spent watching videos, combining all your YouTube notifications into one single alert, and disabling notification sounds and vibrations.
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Recommendation safeguards: With a teen account, you might find that some of your recommendations are limited, such as limiting the amount of times you can watch a certain type of video.
What if YouTube's AI gets your age wrong?
So, you're 18 or older, but for some reason, YouTube thinks you're a minor. In this case, the burden of proof concerning your age is not on YouTube, but on you.
What do you think so far?
According to YouTube's press release, adult users who are incorrectly labeled as teens by YouTube's AI can appeal, but only by presenting a form of identification, like a government ID or a credit card. A YouTube rep did tell ZDNet that a selfie would also be an acceptable form of proof.
I'd be interested to know how many users find themselves in this position. AI is not magic, and, in fact, frequently gets things wrong. I'm sure there are plenty of adults out there that might watch YouTube videos the site associates with younger viewers—especially if those adults are only 18 or 19.
YouTube is far from the only company rolling out these types of age verification systems, too—particularly due to new laws from governments seeking to protect kids online. It seems the next era of the internet will normalize proving our age and identities on what used to be a free, open, and anonymous web.
