As a Ugandan who normally spends a lot of time on social media, here is something you may love to read about. YouTube is rolling out a new AI-powered age verification system that will help to determine the age of its users.
The tool which was rolled out in the US a day ago and soon spreading to other parts of the World will determine whether viewers are under the age of 18 or not based on the content they watch on the platform. The feature will automatically add certain restrictions to your account if it thinks you’re under 18 years old.
“Back in February,we shared that we would soon introduce technology that would distinguish between younger viewers and adults to help provide the best and most age appropriate experiences and protections. 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,” YouTube announced via their official blog published on July 29.
“We’ll closely monitor this before we roll it out more widely. 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 explained further.
Here’s how it works
YouTube will use AI to interpret a variety of signals that help them to determine whether a user is over or under 18.These signals include the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched, or the longevity of the account.
When the system identifies a teen user, YouTube will automatically apply its age-appropriate experiences and protections, including:disabling personalized advertising turning on digital wellbeing tools adding safeguards to recommendations, including limiting repetitive views of some kinds of content.
If the system incorrectly estimates a user to be under 18, they will have the option to verify that they are 18 or over, such as using a credit card or a government ID. YouTube will only allow users who have been inferred or verified as over 18 to view age-restricted content that may be inappropriate for younger users.
The company explains that, by introducing this technology, it will allow them to deliver safety protections while preserving teen privacy as they continue to provide a safe and enriching experience, and to protect the users ability to explore safely online.
