Among those fighting to block AI Age Checks is a petition starter, an anonymous YouTuber who runs a monetized account that explores video game lore, called “Gerfdas Gaming” (for simplicity, it's called Gerfdas).
Gerfdas told ARS that the YouTube appeal process “study key privacy concerns and states, “Where is this sensitive data stored and how safe is it?”
“If YouTube is suffering from a violation, people's names, IDs and faces can end up being the wrong hands,” suggested Gerfdas.
Gerfdas also has problems with the AI Age Verification System itself, and while monetized accounts already share personal information with YouTube, it's unsettling to think that AI is using the platform to scan all users' viewing habits in the background to inappropriately catch some children. Several commenters on the petition said that AI age checks mostly appease parents who struggle to close their children's viewing habits and say, “Didn't this have a YouTube child?”
“Why does AI look up every video I watch without asking for an ID?” Gerfdas assumed. “As an adult, I should be able to see what I want within the law. If the viewer is a child, the responsibility is not the company, but the parents.”
YouTube has not responded to multiple requests to comment and has so far not granted Gerfdas petitions. However, Gerfdas hopes that enough backlash will force YouTube to reconsider AI Age Checks, telling AR “we will continue to make noise until it makes noise even if we don't respond immediately.”
Adult YouTubers adhere to childish viewing habits
Hundreds of self-proclaimed YouTubers joined the Gerfdas petition every hour, as monitored by the ARS. Gerfdas told ARS that the petition had suggested that the popularity of the petition was “not just a YouTube issue.” Gerfdas said age checks have become more common due to regulatory pressures across the internet, and people who are increasingly banding people trying to advocate for digital freedom are becoming more common.
