YouTube is working out whether you're an adult or a child based on the video you're watching.
This is part of a new test that uses AI to check the age of users on your app.
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This exam is currently only in the US and affects only a small number of users.
However, if it succeeds, it could potentially be deployed more widely on video apps owned by Google.
It works by scanning your activities on YouTube to see if you're likely to become an adult.
“We're a great place to go,” said James Beser of Google, who runs product management on YouTube.
Read more about the verification
“These signals include the type of video you are searching for, the category of videos you watched, or the lifespan of your account.”
If the system considers you to be an adult, nothing changes to your account.
However, if YouTube thinks you are a teenager, it automatically applies “age-appropriate experience and protection.”
This means that personalized ads will be turned off on your account and the “Digital Wellbeing” tool will be activated.
It also adds a safeguard to recommendations that include “limit repeating views of some types of content.”
And you won't be able to see content aimed at mature audiences.
If you think you were accidentally flagged as under 18, you can prove your age to YouTube.
“If the system incorrectly assumes that a user is under the age of 18, there is an option to make sure he is over 18, such as using a credit card or government ID,” Beser says.
“Allows users who have been suspected or verified as over 18 years old to display inappropriate age-restricted content to younger users.”
YouTube says it's just trying this out with a “small user set.”
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However, he said he would closely monitor the functionality “before it is deployed wider.”
Google also confirmed that a user's registered birthday is not important.
“This technology allows us to estimate the age of a user and use that signal regardless of the account's birthday to provide age-appropriate product experience and protection,” explained Beser.
UK crackdown
It came just weeks after the UK began cracking down on its website with adult content and was forced to check the age of its users.
Shocking statistics
The latest figures show online the scale of adult content consumption…
Ofcom Stats:
- A UK child between 8 and 14 years old visited an online porn site or app in one month.
- 15% of 13-14 year olds visited online porn in one month.
- Boys aged 13-14 are most likely to visit porn services, much more (19% vs. 11%) than girls of the same age.
- Our survey shows that about 3 in 10 UK adults (29%) or 13.8m adults use porn online.
- Pornhub is the most used site in the UK. A study from Ofcom said 18% (8.4m) visited in a month.
Children's Commissioner Statistics:
Of the 64% who said they've seen online porn:
- The average age at which a child first watches porn is 13. By age 9, 10% had seen porn, and 27% had seen porn by age 11 by half of the children who had seen porn by age 13.
- Young people are also frequently exposed to violent pornography, depicting sexual activity that can be forced, degraded, or painful. 79% encountered violent porn before 18 years old.
- Porn is not limited to dedicated adult sites. Twitter has proven to be the online platform where young people are most likely to have seen porn.
British crackdown affects websites that appear Pornoor content linked to self-harm, suicide or Eating disorders.
It also includes social media sites such as Reddit and X.
“It's really a rubber hits the road,” Oliver Griffiths, group director of online safety at Ofcom, told The Sun last month.
“The situation at this point is often ridiculous because people have to declare what their birthday is. That's not a check at all.”
In the UK, there are three ways that British people are asked to prove their age on adult websites.
One is to scan your face with services like Yoti or Persona. This estimates age based on appearance.
The other is to link information held to you from your bank or mobile phone company.
And the third is to share official documents like passports and drivers. license.
YouTube for kids
YouTube is a huge hit among young people.
Television is now the main way people watch YouTube in the US, and many of those viewers are under the age of 18.
YouTube has a dedicated children's service with curated content for children.
And earlier this year, YouTube CEO vowed to do more to protect their children.
“We're also focusing on protecting the youngest users, so we built YouTube kids and deployed supervised accounts,” said Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube.
“That's why I invested in my learning and teaching experience, improving the way video programs are displayed, easy to learn about video topics, and providing creators with a way to create courses.
“That's why it helps us estimate the age of users in 2025, using machine learning to distinguish between younger audiences and adults.
YouTube celebrated its 20th anniversary this April.
