YouTube set to test AI-powered age checks in the US – will the UK be next?

• YouTube is introducing AI age checks in the US to filter inappropriate content
• Machine learning will base decisions on searched videos and categories, among other criteria
• This announcement follows the recent blocking of YouTube in Australia for minors and restrictions on social media in the UK

YouTube has announced the introduction of AI-based checks to determine the age of viewers.

This news comes days after a complete ban on YouTube access for under-16s in Australia, and the introduction of age verification checks in the UK under the Online Safety Act.

Trialing the technology with a sample audience in the US, YouTube plans to expand it across the country, tailoring experiences based on the viewer’s age.

This doesn’t just mean blocking unsuitable content. Personalized advertising will also be disabled for children, while older viewers will be required to provide government-issued ID to confirm their age if the AI gets it wrong.

YouTube’s “built-in protections”

In a blog post, Director of Product Management for YouTube Youth, James Beser, wrote that “machine learning age estimation” is being employed to protect teens on YouTube.

Distinguishing the new measures from previous incentives such as YouTube Kids and supervised accounts for teens, Beser explained that the platform would work towards presenting age-appropriate videos.

“Over the next few weeks, we’ll begin to roll out machine learning to a small set of users in the US to estimate their age, so that teens are treated as teens and adults as adults,” said Beser.

Machine learning will record the searches and video categories, and the AI will make decisions based on these and other factors, including the age of the account.

“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,” Beser adds.

These protections include disabling personalized advertising when children are watching, and switching on digital wellbeing tools. (These currently include break reminders, daily timers, and even a bedtime reminder.) In addition, recommendations will be safeguarded, with blocks on some repeated content.

These measures would seem to be VPN-proof, too. There would be no point any government banning VPNs if the AI-based measures are universal and cannot be circumvented.

What’s next?

Over the years, criticism of YouTube’s granular content controls has resulted in a subscription service (YouTube Kids), supervised accounts, and Google Family Link integration.

The timing of this announcement, following the decision to include YouTube in Australia’s under-16s social media ban, cannot be a coincidence.

After all, it looks like this is not just a US-only endeavor. “We are now bringing it to the US, and as we make progress, we’ll roll it out in other markets,” Beser writes.

Considering recent events, the UK would seem to be high on that list of markets, followed by key EU nations imposing age verification measures.

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