YouTube announced Tuesday that it will begin using artificial intelligence to estimate the age of US users to display age-appropriate content.
The rollout of this new feature announced less than a week after the UK implemented sweeping age checks for content on social networks, one day after the Australian government announced it would ban children under the age of 16 from using YouTube.
The YouTube AI age validation for home turf shows that despite persistent opposition to age checking requirements, it sets a form of compliance with Australian and UK requirements.
“Over the next few weeks, James Beser, director of product management at YouTube Youth, wrote:
YouTube was promised last year by the then-Communication Minister's Minister of Communications, but the Australian government said Monday that the platform would in fact be included in the ban on children under the age of 16 using social networks. The ban is expected to come into effect in December. YouTube's parent company Google has vehemently defended the Australian ban and threatened to sue them to overturn it.
On July 25th, the UK's long-awaited online safety law came into effect. The law requires social media and other internet platforms to implement safety measures to protect children. This prevents children from accessing pornography and content that promotes risky behavior, or faces major fines.
After the newsletter promotion
By testing new AI tools in the US, the second largest market on a platform behind India, YouTube follows examples of other tech companies. This has followed the strengthening of privacy regulations in the past by implementing strict delegation for all users. In the US, California often functions as a de facto technology regulator by hosting many of Silicon Valley's biggest players and passing stricter regulations than other states. Like Australia and the UK, some US states have passed age verification laws targeting social media sites, but these are not interpreted as being applied to YouTube.
When YouTube determines that a user is a teen or pre-teen, the site will disable personalized ads, activate the digital well-being feature, and place more stringent content filters and behavioral restrictions.
YouTube AI assesses a user's age through multiple behavioral factors, including the type of video they search for, the categories of videos they watch, and how long their account is active according to blog posts.
“The technology allows us to estimate the age of users and use that signal regardless of the account's birthday to provide age-appropriate product experience and protection,” wrote Beser, adding that the company used the technology in other markets before its introduction in the US.
If the AI estimate is incorrect, YouTube says it will allow users to check their age by credit card, government ID, or selfie.
How the Australian government guarantees that under the age of 16 will leave the world's largest video site, one of the internet's main destinations for both children and adults, remains an open question. In June, a test of the technology aimed at estimating the age of Australian users was “not guaranteed to be effective.”
