YouTube will soon ask for ID if its AI decides you’re too young

We’re currently in the middle of a rather regrettable trend taking hold across the globe, as online services increasingly demand that users positively authenticate themselves — or at the very least establish their ages. Over in the UK they’re all having a bunch of fun* (fun not guaranteed) with the Online Safety Act right now, and the US is likely to face a new wave of similar requirements, after a bad Supreme Court ruling last month. Earlier this year, YouTube shared some of its own plans for age verification, and it’s now getting ready to flip the switch.

Over the next few weeks, YouTube will begin testing its age-checking tools on a small group of US users. Rather than initially demanding to see a copy of your ID, the system will start by attempting to guess your age based on your YouTube usage.

While YouTube is obviously not going to provide a detailed breakdown of the sort of things that might flag you as a teen, it attempts to explain in broad strokes:

We will use AI to interpret a variety of signals that help us 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.

It’s not hard to read that and see there being plenty of edge cases where new adult accounts viewing more youth-oriented content could easily trigger YouTube’s suspicions. If that does happen, it’s at this point that you’ll have the option to share a copy of your ID or a credit card with the site, proving your actual age. If you do not, you won’t be able to view age-restricted content and YouTube will activate its additional teen safeguards.

We’ll be very curious to see just how many YouTube viewers end up complaining about being singled-out based on their habits for this extra check — and how many might feel a tad embarrassed by their YouTube history not looking “adult” enough to pass. Feel free to run a few searches for videos on setting up a 401(k) to get ahead of YouTube’s AI scans.