this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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Got Hit with YouTube Age Verification Check (lemmy.nz)
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by Naho_Zako@piefed.zip to c/privacy@programming.dev
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Last week I tried to watch the "Shut the Fuck Up PSA" from the National Lawyers Guild, and it was age blocked. I did try to log in, but now you have to VERIFY your age too (obviously I clicked off that shit).

But honestly, alternative frontends like Freetube and yt-dlp might not make the cut anymore:

Mpv crashed, and Invidious instances keep saying "video may not be age appropriate"

Edit: My state is soon to perform age verification on social media sites, so this is probably the cause. I'll just have to VPN to other states or countries until VPNs fail/are blocked.

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[–] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 8 months ago

they did that too me too, on one of my many google accounts…
all of the other ones are fine, and i can still watch age restricted content while signed out….
but the one account, that one just neeeds to be verified.
this in california usa… its not about age verification laws, it’s about identifying dissenters

[–] Sunshine@piefed.ca 13 points 8 months ago

Coming to a country near you. Sighs in Canada.

Bill S-209 sponsored by the authoritarian Julie Miville-Dechêne

[–] generic_rock@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago (3 children)

FYI: google might suspend and eventually delete your Google account if you don't verify your age within a set period of time.

They say it's to "prevent minors from having access to an account that isn't monitored by parents".

Seems more like unecessary corpo powertripping, to me.

(If you decide to go through with the age verification: the credit card method is probably the least invasive. Just be sure to unlink your card from the account afterwards.)

[–] Tilgare@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Seems more like unecessary corpo powertripping, to me.

Under normal circumstances I'd assume so too. But age verification laws are popping up all over the world and are bound to be VERY different in Aus vs EU vs each of the 25 US states with these new laws. Remember that the companies didn't want any of this - but now that they have to act, they also can be held accountable for failure to act (or insufficient solutions).

And on this one, unlike our horrendous failure to enforce antitrust laws in the US, I do expect to see enforcement somewhere in the chain, at least in the short to mid term. The first lawsuit will become the framework for dozens more to follow against a single company if they don't comply sufficiently.

[–] korazail@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 8 months ago

Remember that the companies didn’t want any of this -

It'd be nice if those companies used their millions of lobbying dollars to tell lawmakers just how stupid this shit is.

They won't, though, because knowing exactly who you are and then verifying it via government documents or biometrics is way more valuable than the users lost who won't verify.

They "don't want it", but they actually do.

[–] Naho_Zako@piefed.zip 4 points 8 months ago

Holy shit, that's crazy. Thankfully I've moved most of my stuff from Google to other services (I love mailbox.org ♥️) but I might have a thing or two stuck on there...

YT Music SidenoteAnyone know a good way of downloading your entire liked music playlist on YT music? I was never good about making my own playlists, and I paused and deleted my YT music history like 2 years ago, so the likes is the only thing I have. I've recently started using Listenbtainz to track my history.

Thanks for the heads up, hopefully I can just ride this one out, but it's ass man...

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Seems more like unecessary corpo powertripping, to me.

None of the tech companies want to do this. They're being forced by age verification laws.

[–] Feyd@programming.dev 4 points 8 months ago

Funny how they have huge successful lobbies for everything but this eh

[–] SlykeThePhoxenix@programming.dev 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

My Google account is almost 18 years old.

[–] faintwhenfree@lemmus.org 1 points 8 months ago

My account turned 18 I think 4 months ago.

[–] logging_strict@programming.dev -5 points 8 months ago

your Google account is old enough to go fight Europe's wars

[–] phlegmy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 months ago

I recently used one of these for the face identification: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008414395786.html

It worked surprisingly well

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 2 points 8 months ago

1st🕒?

[–] eemon@programming.dev 1 points 8 months ago

Evil.

[–] pir8t0x@ani.social 1 points 8 months ago

Verifying through email seems like the better option compared to the other ones

[–] Zoma@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

I've never been able to use youtube with mullvad, I've found using their soks5 proxys make yt-dlp and free-tube work though

[–] x00z@lemmy.world -2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

This is quite common actually. Not sure why you think it's weird. It could literally be the "Fuck" in the title that age restricts it. This is why Youtube creators have been bleeping out every possible curseword for years now. Third party clients wouldn't be able to bypass the age check either. You need an adult account to get access to the video stream data.

But if you're just venting, yeah, it's awful. But it's also kind of normal that an age check is an actual age check. If only the reasons for limiting by age were less restrictive. Keep in mind though that Youtube is strict because it makes it easy on a global scale.

[–] forrgott@lemmy.zip 4 points 8 months ago

It's not about protecting anyone, all age verification is censorship. They just found an excuse they can sell to the public is all...

[–] Naho_Zako@piefed.zip 3 points 8 months ago

I know why YTs have been censoring themselves, and I know that the video having "Fuck" in the title is the reason. But in the past Google would just give a warning, or simply use the age listed on your account (which yes, could be faked as I did in the past). None of that is new to me.

The issue now, is that they're actually enforcing age checks, and you can't get around them without giving up personal info to Google. I am legally an adult, but now I have to show ID or use a credit card to prove it. That's the gross shit. I guess it's mostly a vent post, since this is the first time I've literally been unable to watch a video.