Link: https://mobilesyrup.com/2026/09/24/google-canada-age-estimation-tech/

Google is rolling out its age assurance technology that uses AI in Canada.

Essentially, the technology uses machine learning to interpret “a variety of signals already associated with the users account, such as the types of information a user has searched for or the categories of videos they’ve watched on YouTube,” in order to determine a user’s age.

I mean, that's hypothetically less invasive than requiring your photo ID, and it's exactly what people have been asking for for stuff like Steam being required to identify a user's age. If the account itself is over 18 years old, the user is. If it had an attached debit card, you can probably assume it's an adult. Etc.

So on one hand, eww privacy. On the other, it's info they already have on you and better than forcing ID.

I used to know a lot of developmentally disabled adults whose viewing habits would be indistinguishable from a ten-year-olds. Wonder how long before a disability challenge comes out; I don't know what Canada's disability laws are, but this would attract the interest of an enterprising lawyer under the US's ADA.

I also wonder if this wouldn't just encourage kids to start mixing adult content into their feeds, which would kinda be a perverse outcome for a law designed to protect children.

🤦‍♀️🤮

I really wish there was a good alternative to youtube that more creators used. Peertube would be amazing but a lot of creators I follow with a little ad blocking do not share to peertube.

People make youtube videos because it generates income.

PeerTube can't monetize content and every stored and transmitted bit costs money that has to be donated and the work is unpaid.

It's like wishing non-fat non-sugar ice cream tasted as good as regular ice cream. Ice cream tastes good because of the fat & the sugar, just as YouTube is good because there's money coming in and going out.

Because just fuck false negatives and false positives, right?

The videos people watch for that are like

very adult name and boring stuff tittle / politics stuff taxes idk

Thumnail: "watch this video to trick age guessing (stuff)"

Comments: stuff very grown up people say frfr

i saw a video like that some years ago lol.

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I am well aware of this, it sucks.

Agree. At least YouTube allows capitalist-hostile small creators a voice; otherwise they'd be relegated to 7-minute segments of RT TV.

People make youtube videos because it generates income

It wasn't always this way, plenty of people made great youtube videos just for fun before there was any kind of "monetisation". Sure, there weren't the highly polished big budget videos (which would probably have been on tv back in the day), but there also wasn't all the like-and-subscribe sponsored shit which makes the internet so unpleasant nowadays.

YouTube is good because there's money coming in and going out

So yeah, I can't disagree with this enough!

Those videos people did "for fun" also had massive exposure, because there was money coming in to pay for the servers to push those videos out.

Peertube offers neither much exposure, nor any money, so why? Why spend time making videos for a very few people who you will never meet?

I don't like capitalism or monetization, but what you want is a logical impossibility without a funding stream, and I doubt there is one that isn't problematic to some degree.

Places where independence can thrive are webpages and podcasts--both much cheaper to produce and distribute.

But why?

This is a step too far. What will they announce next?

Google Canada starts using account activity to estimate your income

Google Canada starts using account activity to estimate your location

Google Canada starts using account activity to estimate your interests

Is there no one that can stop Google Canada? Are they in the room with us now?

I thought they already did all of this.

Peertube offers neither much exposure, nor any money, so why? Why spend time making videos for a very few people who you will never meet?

As I said, just for fun. Not everyone creates art for money or reputation. Obviously you do need someone to pay the bills though, hence everything Google has done with youtube over the years.

I get the impulse to create for fun, I really do. But once having created that art for fun, I can also see the impulse to want money from it, if possible, or to increase your social status. So as long as platforms offering reimbursement exist, they will have better and more content than free platforms.

And I'm also listening to what the YouTubers I personally follow say. One of my favorite youtubers is only youtube because TikTok stopped paying creators (and because algorithmically every video was a total crapshoot regardless of followers). A lot of creators I follow also make a big deal of Nebula, because that's more a cooperative arrangement where they get a larger share of the profits...

Attached debit card would be a bad measure, as there's a lot of parents who would give their kids their card info to save.

Account age should most definitely be the first measurement, followed by activity(time of day and type of content).

Either way, you shouldn't have to tell anyone how old you are to use your device.

I was thinking of this when I posted. Also, sometimes a person is babysitting and they watch cartoons with the children they’re taking care of.

🎯 Exactly!