Yesterday, Google began using machine learning to advertisers and publishers to estimate the age of US sign-in users to “protect young people using Google products.” This means that Google will disable ad personalization and allow delicate creative categories for users under the age of 18.
Google announced this earlier this year, but will begin rolling out the changes to “small US users set” over the next few weeks.
Google has written in detail about how this works, but the email Google sent to the advertiser reads:
As previously announced, Google will begin using machine learning to estimate the age of US sign-in users. Over the next few weeks, we will roll out this update to a small set of US users, helping to further protect young people using Google products. This will be closely monitored before it is deployed more widely.
For publisher advertising products, additional ad safeguards are provided when the machine learning model flags Google-signed users who are likely under the age of 18. This includes:
- Disable ad personalization
- We do not allow you to offer delicate creative categories
These changes apply to demands provided through Google Publisher Products (Ad Manager, AdSense, and ADMOB) when Google Account Information is used. No action is required at this time.
In 2021, Google made changes to personalizing children and Google Ads, but now Google uses machine learning to know the age of users.
We discussed how Google does this through “a combination of age estimation and age verification, where necessary.”
- Age Estimation: The age estimation model uses machine learning to interpret various signals already associated with a user's account, such as the type of information that a user searches and the categories of videos he watched on YouTube. These signals help you determine if the user is over 18 years old or under 18 years old.
- Age Verification: If you incorrectly estimate that the user is under 18, the user has the option to correct their age, such as uploading a photo of a government ID or a photo of a selfie.
I received this email, and so did many advertisers:
Here's a policy violation
Flag. @googleads and publisherThis should be interesting #ppcchat pic.twitter.com/pmxdouttx6
– Drew Cannon (@dcdigitalpro) July 30, 2025
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