YouTube has officially rolled out age verification checks to US usersThe service will use AI to determine your ageIf it detects you’re under 18, you’ll have to verify your age by submitting a credit card or government ID<\/p>\n
YouTube<\/a> has officially launched its AI-based age checks in the US, following the introduction of online age verification checks in the UK,<\/a> which aim to shield young people from viewing adult content. Since its widespread rollout came into effect, it\u2019s been met with a slew of backlash, and users are furious.<\/p>\n The main reason why users are concerned with YouTube\u2019s new age check process is down to the age-estimation model itself, which the company announced<\/a> will “use AI to interpret a variety of signals that help us to determine whether a user is over or under 18”. But how will it work?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n YouTube\u2019s AI model will use \u2018signals\u2019 to detect whether a user is under or over the age of 18, which include the longevity of the account, the types of videos a user searches for, and the categories of videos they\u2019ve already watched.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n If YouTube detects you\u2019re underage, it will restrict your account by disabling personalized advertising, turning on digital wellbeing tools, and limiting repetitive views of some kinds of content, despite the age you\u2019ve set on your account. If you\u2019re falsely estimated to be under 18, you\u2019ll have to verify your age by submitting a credit card or government ID.<\/p>\n YouTube hasn’t stated how this AI model will receive data from those trying to verify their age, nor how the data will be stored, which has sparked fears of possible data leaks.<\/p>\n Widespread frustration<\/p>\n Although it\u2019s early days into YouTube\u2019s new AI age checks, users are already taking measures to stop them. On Tuesday, a Change.org petition was published and has grown exponentially, reaching over 90,000 signatures so far.<\/p>\n The petition reads<\/a> “this isn\u2019t just about age restriction \u2013 it\u2019s about mass surveillance and data control”, but that\u2019s not the only reason why users are angry. One Reddit post has sparked widespread conversation about YouTube\u2019s new age checks, garnering 1.8k<\/a> responses.<\/p>\n Oh my GOD, it’s happening<\/a> from r\/youtube<\/a><\/p>\n Aside from data control concerns, the question as to whether YouTube is a host for \u2018real\u2019 adult content is another conversation furious users are having (see below). This was also raised when Spotify introduced its face-scanning age checks in the UK<\/a>, another service that – despite not hosting X-rated content – hosts podcasts that may be deemed of mature nature.<\/p>\n While YouTube is very much on it with flagging adult-leaning content, this can affect videos such as movie and game trailers, which are watched by users of all ages. With the new age checks in place, some content in this category won\u2019t be available to watch if you haven\u2019t logged in, as one user has shared.<\/p>\n How do you feel about YouTube\u2019s new age verification checks? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.<\/p>\n You might also like <\/p>\n Today’s best NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN deals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YouTube has officially rolled out age verification checks to US usersThe service will use AI to determine your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-67038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}