Europe wants users to verify their age to navigate the Internet. Google does not need it: you can estimate it with AI

In February Google advertisement They were going to start starting an experimental system based on AI and automatic learning (Machine Learning) for Estimate the age of users of its services. That technology, initially thought to avoid access to adult content on YouTube, will now serve much more, although for now it will be restricted to the United States.

Automated restrictions. If Google detects that a user is under 18 in the US, it will apply the same restrictions that it applies when users are proactively identified as minors – for example, when creating Gmail accounts. Thus, it will enable reminders to go to sleep on YouTube, it will limit content recommendations and disable both personalized advertising and access to Adult applications in Play Store.

What happens if AI is wrong. If Google’s system incorrectly estimates that a user is under 18, said user will be able to send a photo of his identity card (in the US, that of driving usually), of a credit card or even a selfie. First, that Google ends up having a photo of those documents It is quite disturbing. Second, the selfie option is especially surprising, because a priori might not be enough to verify that someone is not a minor.

Remembering How-Ord.net. Microsoft a decade ago launched an AI experiment according to which a user could upload a photo of one or more people, and the service He tried to guess the age of those people. The tool quickly went viral, but it was also controversial because of its possible impact on privacy. A study Of 2022 he revealed that various systems of this type were quite precise when guessing age in young people, but not so much in older people. Companies specialized in this area as Yoti explain that The margin of error is already reducedand its system has an average 1.3 -year error in young people between 13 and 17 years old.

How to estimate the google age. Google’s age estimation model will use the existing data of its users, including the websites they visit, what type of videos do they see on YouTube or how long their accounts have had.

What about privacy. According to Google, this approach “does not imply the collection of additional data”, but of all that information that you already have thanks to the profiles that users use to access their services. They also ensure that they will not share that estimate with apps or websites. Goal already implemented A similar system on Instagram months ago.

The age verification fever. The movements in this regard are increasingly striking. Before the excuse for companies and governments to spy on us and knew more about us was the terrorist threat. Now it is that minors They can access adult content. There is a unique fever for developing age verification systems everywhere, and we are seeing it especially in Europe … and the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom teaches us how the future can be. One of the first countries to move in this area is the United Kingdom, which these days these days has activated its regulation so that minors cannot access adult content. The age verification systems must be present in all types of platforms, something that has been especially controversial there and that has generated a surprising (or perhaps not so much) Collateral effect: British users They have begun to subscribe in mass to VPN services to avoid having to pass those age verification controls.

The EU wants its own “pajporte”. The controversy introduction of the Digital portfolio beta In Spain —Popularly known as “Pajortport” – is one of the great steps that EU member countries are facing the future European digital identity. Among the options that will enable this mobile application will be to verify the age of the users, and in fact the Spanish initiative is serving as inspiration For a European system. Said system, yes, is not exempt from controversy. It remains to be seen if the Google system is really effective, and if it is, how its deployment progresses and what impact that has on the intentions of various countries to control the age of users.

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