YouTube has announced that it is introducing a new tool aimed at identifying users who are under 18. The move is part of a broader effort to shield younger audiences from content that might not be appropriate for their age group.
The new feature uses AI to make educated guesses about a user’s age. Rather than relying solely on the birthdate tied to an account, it considers what kind of videos someone watches, the themes of those videos, and how long the account has been active. According to James Beser, YouTube’s product management director, this approach will help better identify underage users who may have entered false birth information.
When the system detects that a user is likely under 18, YouTube will apply extra filters, including turning off personalized ads and restricting certain video recommendations. If a user is mistakenly marked as underage, they can correct it by uploading an ID. YouTube stated that any documents submitted are stored securely and not shared publicly.
In addition to these measures, the platform will continue enforcing its current protections for younger users. For example, video uploads from teen accounts will default to private settings, and certain monetization options will be limited. This could lead to reduced ad income for creators targeting teen audiences, as only general, non-targeted ads will be shown to underage viewers.
A Pew Research study found that YouTube is the top platform among teenagers, with 9 in 10 teens aged between 13 and 17 reporting usage in the past year. In comparison, about 63% reported using TikTok.
Neal Mohan, YouTube’s CEO, first announced the AI age-screening tech in February. It builds on features like supervised accounts, which let parents oversee what their kids are doing on the platform.
The company has used AI in the past to remove videos it deems harmful, although there’s been a shift in its policy to favor free speech more heavily in recent years, particularly since the start of President Trump’s second term.
YouTube plans to test the age-checking tool among a select group of U.S. users before releasing it more widely. The company says it’s already seeing positive results in other countries, though it hasn’t specified which ones.
This move comes as lawmakers across multiple U.S. states push for tighter age verification on social media platforms. YouTube now follows Meta, which earlier introduced similar AI-powered age checks for Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram.
It remains to be seen how companies like Thumzup Media Corp. (NASDAQ: TZUP) that offer social media advertising services powered by AI will tweak their operations to take into account the changes that video-sharing platforms like YouTube are making to regulate teens’ use of these platforms.
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