I might quite cease watching YouTube than add my ID

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YouTube has been step by step increasing its AI age-estimation operations within the US over the previous few months. It began in July, with the announcement that the platform would require customers who didn’t appear sufficiently grownup to confirm they’re over the age of 18 earlier than accessing all of what the platform has to supply. This month, but extra customers obtained caught in YouTube’s age verification internet.

I’m on YouTube quite a bit: There aren’t many different locations the place I can get world information, dwell music performances, online game critiques, and in-depth explainers on how air-con works multi functional spot. However YouTube’s invasive age estimation and verification practices are a part of a troubling and rising development — one that would drive me off the platform completely.

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If YouTube’s techniques guess that you simply’re underneath the age of 18, it’ll activate restrictions that stop you from seeing sure sorts of content material on the platform. YouTube makes use of a fairly broad number of indicators from throughout your Google account, together with the age of your account, the sorts of searches you’re making, the sorts of movies you’re watching, and which apps you’ve downloaded, to make this estimation.

Sure sorts of content material aren’t allowed on YouTube in any respect, however loads of what YouTube does supply is simple to categorize as inappropriate for youths. The platform doesn’t expressly forbid all content material that comprises violence, nudity, harmful stunts, or profanity, and usually flags these sorts of movies as being adult-oriented, hiding them from accounts owned by minors.

However YouTube’s age estimation system appears liable to false positives. Reddit is chock filled with studies of YouTube erroneously flagging grownup customers as minors and slapping content material restrictions on their accounts. To carry these restrictions, customers should confirm their age to YouTube. You are able to do that by importing a duplicate of a authorities ID exhibiting your age, supplying a selfie for age evaluation, or turning over particulars for a bank card along with your identify on it. Many customers who’ve been confronted with the selection are uncomfortable handing over any of this info, and I don’t suppose they’re unsuitable in that feeling.

Has YouTube requested you to confirm your age? 62 votes

Sure, and I uploaded my ID to confirm.

5%

Sure, and I uploaded a selfie to confirm.

0%

Sure, and I entered bank card info to confirm.

0%

Sure, however I refused.

5%

No, YouTube has not requested me to confirm my age.

85%

One thing else (depart a remark).

5%

These verification strategies are invasive. Importing your ID to an internet site isn’t the identical as flashing it to a retailer clerk to purchase a six-pack; within the case of YouTube and different on-line platforms, handing over your ID entails sending photographs of the doc to be hosted in a spot the place you haven't any management of them.

Earlier this 12 months, YouTube advised Ars Technica that it doesn’t save knowledge from any consumer’s “ID or Fee Card for the needs of promoting,” however as Digital Frontier Basis Civil Liberties Director David Greene put it to the publication, “I feel we are able to assume which means it is going to be retained for different functions.” Google’s obtained a very good monitor file in the case of preserving consumer knowledge locked down, however previous efficiency doesn’t assure future outcomes — and now it appears potential {that a} main breach might leak scans of YouTube customers’ authorities IDs. That’s not the kind of data you need within the fingers of dangerous actors.

Anecdotal studies counsel that submitting photographs of public figures quite than an actual picture of your self could get you out of the appeals course of with out divulging any private info. However that isn’t fool-proof, and as time goes on, Google will discover methods to strengthen its techniques in opposition to such workarounds.

Received’t any person consider the youngsters?

<img class="e_Gg" decoding="async" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 64rem) 51.25rem, 80vw" title="YouTube Kids logo on smartphone stock photo 2" srcset="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YouTube-Kids-logo-on-smartphone-stock-photo-2.jpg 1920w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YouTube-Kids-logo-on-smartphone-stock-photo-2-1536w-864h.jpg 1536w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YouTube-Kids-logo-on-smartphone-stock-photo-2-675w-380h.jpg 675w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YouTube-Kids-logo-on-smartphone-stock-photo-2-64w-36h.jpg 64w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YouTube-Kids-logo-on-smartphone-stock-photo-2-1000w-563h.jpg 1000w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YouTube-Kids-logo-on-smartphone-stock-photo-2-300w-170h.jpg 300w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YouTube-Kids-logo-on-smartphone-stock-photo-2-1280w-720h.jpg 1280w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YouTube-Kids-logo-on-smartphone-stock-photo-2-840w-472h.jpg 840w" alt="YouTube Kids logo on smartphone stock photo 2" src="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/YouTube-Kids-logo-on-smartphone-stock-photo-2.jpg"/> YouTube’s place right here may appear affordable at first blush; all of us need children to be protected on-line. However YouTube’s embrace of age verification is in no small half about compliance with current laws. Platforms constructed on user-generated content material are dealing with mounting strain around the globe to verify children don’t enterprise into extra adult-oriented corners: Most states within the US, together with my house state of Ohio, have applied or launched laws requiring platforms to confirm consumer age earlier than permitting entry to sure sorts of content material.

Within the UK, too, on-line platforms are actually obligated to confirm consumer age earlier than granting entry to content material pertaining to a variety of matters, together with self-harm and consuming problems. (Wired has reported that because the On-line Security Act’s enforcement started over the summer season, VPN use within the UK has skyrocketed.)

No quantity of government-mandated company surveillance can cease children from accessing objectionable content material.

Gating content material about delicate topics behind age verification techniques can itself do hurt to each children and adults. Minors on the lookout for info on methods to navigate tough conditions could discover themselves reduce off from vital sources — and so can adults who aren’t keen to undergo YouTube’s age enchantment course of. Living proof: Redditor Life-Meringue-6396 shared a screenshot exhibiting they have been hit with an age verification request on YouTube when attempting to view a video on suicide consciousness.

As mainstream platforms undertake more and more stringent age verification, youngsters (and adults who both choose out or can’t confirm their id) will likely be pushed to more and more fringe locations for leisure and knowledge. No quantity of government-mandated company surveillance can cease children from accessing objectionable content material. Don’t depend on automated techniques to maintain your children protected — speak to them about what they’re doing on-line.

I’d quite ditch YouTube than confirm my age

<img class="e_Gg" decoding="async" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 64rem) 51.25rem, 80vw" title="youtube app icon google pixel recents" srcset="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/youtube-app-icon-google-pixel-recents.jpg 1920w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/youtube-app-icon-google-pixel-recents-64w-36h.jpg 64w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/youtube-app-icon-google-pixel-recents-1000w-563h.jpg 1000w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/youtube-app-icon-google-pixel-recents-1536w-864h.jpg 1536w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/youtube-app-icon-google-pixel-recents-675w-380h.jpg 675w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/youtube-app-icon-google-pixel-recents-300w-170h.jpg 300w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/youtube-app-icon-google-pixel-recents-1280w-720h.jpg 1280w, https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/youtube-app-icon-google-pixel-recents-840w-472h.jpg 840w" alt="youtube app icon google pixel recents" src="https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/youtube-app-icon-google-pixel-recents.jpg"/> Taylor Kerns / Android Authority

I’m in my 30s, my Google account is sufficiently old to vote, and I don’t watch many movies that may be construed as children’ content material. Assuming YouTube’s age estimation techniques are functioning the way in which Google intends them to, it appears unlikely I’ll be caught up within the ongoing age verification drama.

Even so, YouTube rolling these measures out broadly provides to a rising precedent for a web based future the place the platforms we depend on count on to know much more about us than they already do — in lots of instances, as a result of they’ll be legally obligated to. Because it stands in the present day, starting subsequent 12 months, customers in Texas, Utah, and Louisiana will likely be required to undergo some type of age verification earlier than downloading apps from the Play Retailer or the iOS App Retailer. Not simply apps which will host adult-oriented content material, both; age-verification laws in these states will apply to most apps accessible on Android. (The laws that’ll require that verification is dealing with pushback, together with from Google itself.)

Our names, faces, electronic mail addresses, and extra are floating round within the ether, ready to be scooped up by dangerous actors for some nefarious objective or different — preserving our privateness or anonymity on-line would possibly really feel like a misplaced trigger. Personally, although, I’m drawing the road at submitting my ID to entry leisure. I watch a number of YouTube, however push come to shove, I’d drop it altogether earlier than submitting to any of the age-verification strategies the platform presents.