Earlier this week, we wrote about how YouTube–which just lost a fight to be exempt from a new Australian law keeping kids under 16 off social media–is introducing a new AI system it says can effectively guess users’ ages based on their account activity. Accounts flagged as being operated by a kid/teen will have safeguards automatically applied.
But since this is a machine-learning system, and a brand-new one to boot, YouTube is expecting some growing pains. It’s already laid out a procedure for what will happen if an account is mistakenly flagged as being run by someone under 18.
That procedure sounds simple: “If the system incorrectly estimates a user to be under 18, they will have the option to verify that they are 18 or over, such as using a credit card or a government ID,” YouTube said.
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And, for many people, it is simple.
Not for VTubers, though.
So YouTube wants us to provide our IDs while our accounts are constantly being hacked by crypt0 scammers 🤔 https://t.co/Kmz8giE5V5
— Bao The Whale 🐳 (@baovtuber) July 31, 2025
If you’ve been anywhere on the internet over the last few years, you probably remember the fandom fervor surrounding the Minecraft server Dream SMP. Its eponymous head man was a faceless creator for years, keeping his IRL visage, name, and other personal details private. He eventually decided to do a face reveal (and regretted it), but I want you to think about what it was like before that reveal. How many people were desperate to know what he looked like, where he lived, and what he was like when he wasn’t streaming.
Now take that situation and remember most VTubers are women, with primarily male audiences, and that they regularly have to deal with people demanding to know who they really are, behind the buxom anime girl (or orca, or interdimensional genius, or sympathetic cyborg).
That gives you a primer for understanding why some VTubers are concerned about YouTube’s new rule.
Bao The Whale, a well-known VTuber signed with UTA, tweeted she’s worried about whether and how Google plans to protect the contents of VTubers’ government-issued IDs, if they had to submit them for verification.
She pointed to a still-ongoing incident where VTuber AmatsukaUto‘s YouTube channel was hacked by cryptocurrency scammers, saying, “So YouTube wants us to provide our IDs while our accounts are constantly being hacked by crypt0 scammers.”
Cryptocurrency scammers hijacking YouTube channels is not a new phenomenon, and apparently, despite Alphabet’s position as a tech giant, is a continuing problem.
Several other VTubers replied to Bao’s tweet, expressing similar concerns. These concerns are also not new: Being doxxed is one of the top things for all creators to be mindful of, because there are documented instances of it resulting in stalking, swatting, and more. Since government IDs usually contain full legal names and current addresses, it’s a serious security risk for any creator if they get leaked. But the faceless culture surrounding VTubing makes the situation potentially worse for them, as they could be targeted by bad actors who find their desire for privacy a challenge rather than a boundary worthy of respect.
This being said, it’s not clear how YouTube’s system will work. What tools will people use to send their IDs to YouTube? Will images of those IDs be stored long-term? What protections is YouTube putting in place not just for submitted IDs, but for creators’ accounts?
We also suspect the vast majority of VTubers and other established creators will be grandfathered in as exceptions, with this system mostly screening viewer accounts. It’s obvious that most creators are adults, and they appear on camera in some capacity, whether that’s via face or voice. User accounts are the actual faceless ones, and YouTube says it’ll analyze signals like what kinds of content users search for and watch in order to determine operators’ ages.
Still, VTubers could get caught up in this new system. But whether they do or not, Bao and co. raised ongoing concerns about creator safety. AmatsukaUto’s channel, where she has ~600,000 subscribers, was hacked July 29, and when she tweeted about it, she received a vague response from Team YouTube with general account recovery advice.
As of press time, she has not regained access to her channel. If you go to its URL, YouTube says it’s been deleted.
