Youtube's new 18+ restriction thing
Aug. 1st, 2025 02:03 pmIf you haven't heard: Youtube's gonna be rolling out a thing where they use AI to analyze the types of videos you watch to determine whether or not you're 18. If they think you're under, they're probably gonna limit what kinds of videos you can watch, and if they think you're 18 or over, you're gonna have to provide your ID. And if at any point Youtube has your age wrong, you're gonna have to provide some sort of ID anyways to rectify it.
I hate it all. Some people have posited that this being put in place is to protect kids, which on it's face sounds like a good thing. But having to give your ID to some online company, and Google no less... Not too long ago there was already another incident where an app intended for women only had it's database leaked, resulting in the leakage of several IDs (because this app used IDs to prove that its users were indeed women, a practice I have my own thoughts about). Google may have the upper hand in security because they're a larger company, but I still don't want to trust them with that shit! What is Google gonna do with my ID after I've uploaded it? If it doesn't delete my data afterwards, you just know that thing is gonna end up in a data breach 5 or 7 years down the line.
I really hope this action gets walked back when it does get put into place. But in the case that it doesn't and I get locked out of my account due to not wanting to provide my ID... I think I might just quit Youtube until that shit's walked back. If you didn't know, I have a small Youtube channel where I mainly upload speed paint videos as well as other whim-of-the-moment videos. I don't have a strong attachment to it all, and while it'd be a shame to lose that stuff, I'm sure I could find other places to host my content (if I feel a strong hankering for the video format again, that is).
I hate it all. Some people have posited that this being put in place is to protect kids, which on it's face sounds like a good thing. But having to give your ID to some online company, and Google no less... Not too long ago there was already another incident where an app intended for women only had it's database leaked, resulting in the leakage of several IDs (because this app used IDs to prove that its users were indeed women, a practice I have my own thoughts about). Google may have the upper hand in security because they're a larger company, but I still don't want to trust them with that shit! What is Google gonna do with my ID after I've uploaded it? If it doesn't delete my data afterwards, you just know that thing is gonna end up in a data breach 5 or 7 years down the line.
I really hope this action gets walked back when it does get put into place. But in the case that it doesn't and I get locked out of my account due to not wanting to provide my ID... I think I might just quit Youtube until that shit's walked back. If you didn't know, I have a small Youtube channel where I mainly upload speed paint videos as well as other whim-of-the-moment videos. I don't have a strong attachment to it all, and while it'd be a shame to lose that stuff, I'm sure I could find other places to host my content (if I feel a strong hankering for the video format again, that is).