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YouTube, the video-sharing platform owned by Alphabet, is set to deploy AI to identify users in the US who are under 18 years old. The move comes amid increasing demands for technology companies to bolster online safety measures for children.

In a blog post, YouTube announced that it plans to utilise AI technology to assess various signals such as longevity of the account, video searches, and preferred content categories, to estimate the age of its users.

For those identified as under 18, the platform will automatically enforce standard protection measures designed for teenage accounts.

“This will happen regardless of the birthdate you entered when creating your account. We’ll then use that to extend age-appropriate product experiences and protections to more teens (like enabling digital well-being tools and only showing non-personalised ads)”, the company stated in its blog.

The initiative is set to commence on 13 August 2025 and will initially involve a limited group of users in the US.

“These protections for teens are not new – we now have enhanced technology to more accurately determine whether or not a user is under 18 and are now able to extend these protections to more teenagers. We’ve used this approach in other markets for some time, where it is working well and we are now gradually rolling it out to the US”, the post added.

This development aligns with the age verification laws passed in several US states and other countries, which mandate platforms to confirm users’ ages to protect minors from inappropriate content.

On YouTube, if the AI determines a user is under 18, the platform will activate safeguards such as privacy reminders and reduced recommendations of potentially problematic content.

In scenarios where the AI inaccurately estimates a user’s age, YouTube offers the option for users to verify their age through government ID, credit card, or by uploading a personal photograph.

The video-sharing platform warned that some content creators might notice changes in their teenage audience demographics and potentially experience a decrease in ad revenue. However, it anticipates a “limited impact for most creators.”

This initiative follows YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s February announcement regarding the company’s plans to expand the use of AI, including for age estimation.

Additionally, creators will have access to AI features such as automatic dubbing between languages and tools to generate video titles or image thumbnails.

YouTube said it intends to closely observe the AI-driven age estimation process before broadening its application, Bloomberg reported.