YouTube provides age estimation technology to identify adolescents and apply additional protection

YouTube announced on Tuesday that it has started offering age technology in the United States to identify teenagers in order to provide a more suitable experience. The company says it will use a variety of signals to determine the potential life of users, regardless of what the user has made as their birthday when they registered for an account.

When youtube introduces a user as a teenager, it is IntrIt holds new protection and experiences, which include disrupting personal ads, and protection from that Reducing repeated viewing For certain types of content and empowerment Digital well -being tools Like screen time and bedtime reminder, among other things.

This protection is already on YouTube, but it was only applied to those who have been right with themselves as teenagers, and not those who have blocked their true age. For example, in 2023, YouTube has started to reduce the repeated viewing of the videos This can lead to problems with the image of the body or those that display social aggression. The company was also developing Digital well -being tools since 2018.

If the new system defines an incorrect user as less than 18 years old when it is not, YouTube says that the user will give the option to verify his age using a credit card, a government identifier or a personal photo. Only users who have been verified directly through this method or whose age has been concluded to be more than 18 years will be able to display the restricted content on the platform.

The company says that the technology that is powered by automatic energy will begin to put it in the next few weeks to a small group of American users and will be monitored before launching it on a wider scale.

The plans to introduce the technology of inference were age He announced for the first time in February As part of the YouTube 2025 road map. The plans are also the latest step in trying to make YouTube more secure for the younger users, yet 2015 YouTube Kids and 2024 Introduce accounts under supervision. Features also reach as social media are subject to a wider scale under the increasing government audit in the United States, where platform makers, including Apple and Google, They incited pressure groups against companies from major technology companies Like Meta, who is responsible for verifying age and children’s safety.

Meanwhile, a handful of the United States took matters in its hands, such as More than ten Countries have approved or proposed laws to regulate the use of the palace for social media. Many of these matters require verification of age or parenting approval, including those in Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Uta, Texas, Maryland, Tennessee, Connecticut, among others. (However, some laws, such as laws in Utah and Arkansas, are banned due to litigation at this time and are not implemented, while others are still pending.)

The United Kingdom also started implementing it Special age verification check This week, after passing the online safety law 2023.

YouTube does not share details about the signals you use to conclude the user’s age, but it indicates that it will look at some data such as YouTube and the longevity of the user account to determine if the user is less than 18 years old.

The new system will be applied to signer users only, as users can not already access to a lifetime -registered content, and they will be available via basic systems, including the web, mobile phone and connected television.