So YouTube does this to comply with EUs new directive? Isn’t this beyond Google then, and we’re starting to see similar methods for user verification on other video-on-demand platforms?

What’s up with these horribly out-of-touch privacy/license EU directives...

So this seems to be in response to article 27 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive[1]

Of note is that the law does not mention ID cards or credit cards. That just happens to be the route youtube chose to go.

[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CEL...

> For content owners who feel their videos were erroneously restricted, YouTube will let them appeal the decision.

I’m sure that this process will have no problems whatsoever.

if required then BYE!

It's not youtube's fault, it's the EU's. I was going to say "remember this the next time you vote", but it's not like us EU citizens are really given a choice.

true story

And you'll go where to watch the age restricted videos you now watch on YouTube?

nsfwyoutube works around that restriction.

Personally, if YouTube asks me for ID, I'll leave the platform too, pulling down all favorites videos before and rehosting them somewhere else instead.

I feel like they'll just close the loophole that allows nsfwyoutube to work, then we'll actually have to confront the situation instead of having a work around.

I hadn't heard of nsfwyoutube. Thanks!

Don't watch them at all.

I don't already, because I don't log in to what YouTube videos. But the article said that more videos were likely to be limited to age-verified accounts, and that identification would be done by machine, which tells me that more and more videos are going to require being logged in first.

I've already seen over the last couple of months that YouTube insists on prompting me to log in, so I figure there's a larger movement at Google to tie viewers to actual people/accounts - almost certainly to improve advertising revenue.

So at some point there will likely be something I want to watch which is "age restricted" or "for premiere accounts" or something like that, which once upon a time would have been available to anyone.

mpv bypasses age restriction (via youtube-dl)

> via youtube-dl

... for now. :(

Replace 'you' with 'hook' in the url.

Will this be imposed upon other regions as well?

Only if other regions/nations require it. Youtube is doing this to comply with EU directive as stated in the article.