Are you a kid watching YouTube? The Google-owned platform is testing technology in the U.S. that can predict if you’re under 18 — and automatically add certain restrictions to your account.
YouTube says the move is aimed at providing better protections for younger users. On Wednesday, it began rolling out an “age-estimation model” in the U.S. that uses AI to determine if someone is under 18, regardless of the birthday they’ve entered into their account.
If YouTube’s AI-based system calculates that someone is likely less than 18 years old, it will place restrictions on and add other security measures to the account. According to YouTube, users will “have the option to verify your age (through government ID, selfie or a credit card) if you believe our age estimation model is incorrect.”
The rollout of AI will initially cover a “small set of users” in the U.S. to estimate their age, “so that teens are treated as teens and adults as adults,” James Beser, senior director of product management for YouTube’s youth products, wrote in blog post. “This technology will allow us to infer a user’s age and then use that signal, regardless of the birthday in the account, to deliver our age-appropriate product experiences and protections.”
YouTube has used machine learning to estimate users’ ages in other countries “for some time, where it is working well,” according to Beser. In the U.S., YouTube will “closely monitor the user experience, and partner with Creators to ensure that the entire ecosystem benefits from this update,” he added.
According to YouTube, the age estimation model uses a variety of signals such as YouTube activity and longevity of the account. If the system determines that you are under 18, you will be notified and “standard protections for teen accounts on YouTube will automatically be enabled.”
Those “protections” (which are already applied for users who have told YouTube they’re under 18) include: showing only non-personalized ads; enabling “digital wellbeing” tools by default, including “take a break” and bedtime reminders; showing reminders about privacy when uploading a video or commenting publicly; minimizing recommendations of videos with content that could be “problematic if viewed in repetition”; and blocking access to videos that are age-restricted for only viewers 18 and older (determined by YouTube or verified by users).
For creators, YouTube will apply some additional protections including setting uploads as private by default for anyone and restricting the ability to earn from gifts on vertical live streams. While the video platform expects the changes to have “limited impact” for most creators, YouTube noted that “some creators may experience a shift in their audience categorized as teens (under 18). This may result in a decrease in ad revenue since we only serve non-personalized ads to those viewers.”
“YouTube was one of the first platforms to offer experiences designed specifically for young people, and we’re proud to again be at the forefront of introducing technology that allows us to deliver safety protections while preserving teen privacy,” Beser wrote in the blog post. “Families trust YouTube to provide a safe and enriching experience, and we’ll continue to invest to protect their ability to explore safely online.”
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