SAN BRUNO, Calif.—YouTube, the Google-owned video-sharing platform, announced that it will start utilizing artificial intelligence-assisted age assurance technology to identify the ages of users. The company made the announcement on its blog on Tuesday, noting that age assurance actions will start on August 13.
"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," reads the blog post. "We’ve used this approach in other markets for some time, where it is working well."
Verification and assurance will be applied to users regardless of the birthdate tied to their Google account.
"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," adds the blog post. "We 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."
