Since about August of this year, AI ID verification has popped up on YouTube, but where did it originate, and why are many applications, such as YouTube and Discord, implementing it? ID verifications originate in the UK, with the Online Safety Act duties, which actually started in 2023. However, in August, YouTube announced that it’d be implementing AI age verification. But this meant taking a picture of your ID and giving it to YouTube, where YouTube could then store it for two months or two years. The ID verification would be needed if YouTube suspected you were under 18 because of your watch history.
Now, this brought up a lot of uproar and questions. Questions like: What about nostalgic adults and teens rewatching shows they would watch when they were children? Where did keeping private information off the internet go? As well as many other questions. Unfortunately, none of these questions were really answered, as YouTube’s ultimate response to it all was “if we get your age wrong, just give us a picture of your ID.” That answer, of course, does not help one bit.
People have suspected since this change was brought in that it was actually not to protect children —as that was YouTube’s defense for this— but to control what they see, whether good or bad. However, if YouTube really did want to protect the children, it’d be more careful about the ads and content posted to its website. Of course, it’s good to want to protect children from what they may see on the internet; however, it’s also important that the parents of these children are parenting their kids and not letting them run wild on the internet.
Eventually, another question came up with this change: what about hackers and ID leaks? This update is not only a privacy violation, but also a hacker’s paradise, as IDs would end up leaked, putting those who send a picture of their ID in danger.
As said, this has also spread farther than YouTube, as Discord and TikTok have also implemented it. It’s even gone as far as laws being made about it in states like Texas, Florida, Nebraska, New York, Utah, and a couple of other states. Of course, these laws are more centered on adult content sites, but a point has been brought up by many, including the sites themselves, that if people cannot access these sites, they’ll just go to more dangerous sites that won’t have any protections on them. Now, obviously, they do have a point, but parents should also have an age-appropriate conversation with their kids so that they understand why they shouldn’t look for these things when they’re young and very easily influenced.
