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A few days ago, I clicked an age restricted video on Youtube and usually I just state that I am above 18 but now they ask for a credit card number or an identit

A few days ago, I clicked an age restricted video on Youtube and usually I just state that I am above 18 but now they ask for a credit card number or an identity card to prove it. I am not going to send this just to watch some random video clip that users have declared not appropriate to a young audience because it features a zombie. Seriously!

etxm 5y ago
That’s interesting because I had a credit card at 16 (it was on my parent’s account).
- carlhjerpe 5y ago
  I had a debit at 12 (Visa Electron), my own account but approved at the bank by mom.
buggeryorkshire 5y ago
I had that too. A 14 year old account, with Google Cloud and Google One billing, plus many Google Store purchases and they still wanted me to prove my age. WTF?
- gruez 5y ago
  That totally makes sense from a software engineering point of view. The age check was probably implemented as a "verified_age" column somewhere, and they didn't bother backfilling it with your existing google account info.
  - retSava 5y ago
    Absolutely, but for one of the largest sites on the web, served by one of the richest companies on the planet, being the one company knowing the most about me (and billions more) compared to other companies, and Youtube being probably one of the most profitable sites on the web too, I do expect better.
  - PostThisTooFast 5y ago
    It's still shitty programming that inconveniences the user.
  - manigandham 5y ago
    It doesn't make sense for a trillion-dollar company known for some of the best software engineering. There are remarkable lapses in UX with Google products.
    - kortilla 5y ago
      Google is the new IBM. There are certainly amazing things being done but 90% of the employees are just doing boring CRUD and have never done anything special.
    - mrweasel 5y ago
      Someday I hope to read an article or watch a talk explaining Googles approach to UX. The best UX in a Google apps seems to be Gmail, and that’s honestly not that good either. Google is able to build insanely complicated infrastructure, design cool languages, they produced fantastic backend software and the they completely forget that people need to interact with it.
      - MiddleEndian 5y ago
        Gmail at some point had a good UX. Nowadays I've switched back to a local mail client because their webmail is weirdly sluggish for no reason.
      - ric2b 5y ago
        The best UX is in products they killed, like Inbox or Play Music.
    - jokethrowaway 5y ago
      Best engineering? Ever tried hiring some of those ex Google contractors? There is plenty of good engineers in Google and plenty of terrible engineers.
      - CRConrad 5y ago
        So their vaunted gruesome job interview process is no more effective than any other company's boring old normal one.
  - _joel 5y ago
    That's very convenient for them, if so, but I very much doubt that's the reason.
  - wombatpm 5y ago
    Any Googlers reading this discussion? Was there a valid reason for these decisions or did everyone just miss it?
hyfgfh 5y ago
Looks like they are trying to reduce the friction to subscribe to Youtube Premium
- andreilys 5y ago
  Take a look at the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive [https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/avmsd https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/avmsd] and you'll have your answer for why this feature exists.
- veggie_screams 5y ago
  YT Premium subscribers also get this prompt. At least I did.
hughrr 5y ago
Same situation here. This, the 2/3 ads being forced down me which are of no interest at all and the constant upselling of YouTube music and the recent shoot down of ad blockers on the desktop browser front really makes it a hostile place to be a consumer of media. I have experimentally uninstalled the YT app off my phone and not used the web site and I haven’t missed it a bit.
- cosmojg 5y ago
  > the recent shoot down of ad blockers on the desktop browser Mobile browsers have been affected as well. uBlock Origin on Firefox for Android has been letting the ads through recently. Fortunately, NewPipe exists, but it depends on youtube-dl so, while it remains free of ads, it's also affected by this change surrounding age-restricted content. Hopefully people start moving somewhere else within the next few years, maybe PeerTube. Admittedly, YouTube's network effects are disgustingly strong. I wonder what it would take to break them.
  - arkh 5y ago
    > I wonder what it would take to break them. Having Android apps could help with people who use an Android device to watch videos on their TV. And if Google does not authorize these kinds of apps on the playstore I think it is more than time to start on an abuse of dominant position suit.
  - h4waii 5y ago
    There's also a fork of NewPipe with SponsorBlock support [0], I am hesitant to link it, but I agree that moving off YouTube and centralized networks is the goal. 0. https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe/ https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe/
  - app4soft 5y ago
    > Fortunately, NewPipe exists, but it depends on youtube-dl so, while it remains free of ads, it's also affected by this change surrounding age-restricted content. Issue thread is here.[0] [0] https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/6403 https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/6403
jeroenhd 5y ago
AFAIK the age restriction credit card thing (inside the EU) is the result of some stupid law change (the Audiovisual Media Services Directive). Google probably doesn't want to validate users' age (because selling ads to impressionable kids is very lucrative) but they have to now.
- StavrosK 5y ago
  > Google probably doesn't want to validate users' age (because selling ads to impressionable kids is very lucrative) but they have to now. I mean, I hate this age validation as much as everyone else, curbing advertising to impressionable kids doesn't sound too stupid to me...
  - wyager 5y ago
    This is parents’ job, not Google’s. If you legally require Google to act like a parent, they have to do it to everyone.
    - adkadskhj 5y ago
      It _sounds_ like you're speaking in absolutes though, lacking nuance. If you are, my reply to absolutes would be that we should stop enforcing alcohol sales to minors, as it's the parent's job to ensure kids their don't drink. Personally i think age verification is good. This implementation is moronic, though. And all around it's very, very difficult. So difficult that it may never be useful.
      - h_anna_h 5y ago
        > my reply to absolutes would be that we should stop enforcing alcohol sales to minors We absolutely should. Thankfully it is already not enforced in a lot of places (such as in greece).
    - kowlo 5y ago
      I hope I won't be considered presumptuous, but I suspect you don't have children? It is simply impossible to monitor absolutely everything.
ljm 5y ago
I had this happen with the old "Ah fuck, I can't believe you've done this" video. I'm not sure why exactly that has an age restriction, or why I'd give Google some ID to watch a vintage Youtube meme. I presume it's because their ML detected 'fuck' in the audio. Note to Google: Ah fuck, I can't believe you've done this.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Y_Y 5y ago
  This encapsulates my feelings perfectly. My Gmail account is 17 years old, but I get a notification on my phone every hour or so, that I must verify my age with Google. Nevermind that I've bought plenty of things from them over the years and that all I want to do is watch a YouTube video they happily showed me many times before. Now I'm shopping for some storage to keep seventeen years of emails etc. so I can do a quick Takeout so that I don't lose access to all my data when I inevitably get unfriended and blocked by them for not being sufficiently compliant.
- johnlorentzson 5y ago
  Hearing the funny man say fuck now requires ID, wonderful.
swiley 5y ago
You work so hard explaining to your friends good infosec practice like not just typing their credit card in because some site wants to "verify their age" and then Google and Apple just go and fuck around with stuff like this. At this point the best advice you can give your friends is "stay the fuck away from computers unless you're willing to sit down and read a bunch of FOSSS manuals."
- dfxm12 5y ago
  On one hand, people have given up their credit card for worse pre-Internet or outside of the Internet (like "free" or nearly free trials that turn into a subscription service). On another, Google already has a lot of peoples' credit card numbers by way of Google Pay. Does this expose those people to any more risk?
  - dheera 5y ago
    Aren't there some credit cards that can create virtual numbers? Just give them a virtual number and then disable it right after registering. Then have your free trial, and only if you decide to actually subscribe, change it to a credit card number that is active. Businesses should not be unscrupulously trying to make money off people who forgot about the product during their free trial.
    - derwiki 5y ago
      I use Privacy.com to make virtual cards for this purpose.
      - rootusrootus 5y ago
        Does privacy.com still require a debit card? That was what put me off the last time I investigated their service.
        Chirael 5y ago
        It did the last time I looked into it. I went to set up a privacy.com virtual card for a semi-sketchy site, only to have privacy deny the charge as it was for a "high risk" site. Yeah, I KNOW, that's why I wanted to use a virtual card. That ended my brief foray into privacy.com
chrismorgan 5y ago
> now they ask for a credit card number or an identity card to prove it Related, I can’t install my telco’s app because it’s region-locked to Australia and Google Play Store seems to think I’m in the USA—never mind that my account was created in Australia over fifteen years ago and it’s only been to America twice for a total of less than three months, and that my phone was bought in Australia and set up in Australia, as was my first phone. Seems like a case of an absurd and harmful default. Anyway, the only way to convince them I’m in Australia is to add a billing method. Nope. I’m not giving them billing details. (Now if only the telco would unlock it, as their support staff said they were working on, never mind that the whole process takes less than five minutes and I gave them the help page over a month ago. Or better still, if the telco would just provide a web interface like literally everyone else does, rather than just Apple and Google Android apps. Sigh. If only they weren’t the cheapest for my needs by a large margin.) Also related to the whole age thing, I just started the Google Settings app half an hour ago for other reasons and it triggered a notification asking me to enter my birthday “to help us comply with the law”, expressed even more strongly on the page the notification takes you to as “Your date of birth is missing. This info is needed to comply with the law.”, with a “learn more about why Google asks for this info” link to https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1733224?hl=en-GB https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1733224?hl=en-GB, where the only sort of thing that they could conceivably be referring to as a legal compliance matter would be the minimum age of 13, and… I’ve been using that account for longer than that anyway.
- ripdog 5y ago
  Have you tried googling the app identifier (grab it from the google play url) to find an APK download?
- jsnell 5y ago
  Create a new account from an Australian IP, sign it in to your Android phone as a secondary account, and then switch to the new account in Play to install the app. (Once installed, use of the app is not tied to the secondary account in any way.)
LandR 5y ago
Had a video come up as age restricted forcing me to sign into watch. It was a cooking video, they added some form of alcohol to the dish at one point.. I mean, I get it, but it still feels ridiculous.
tzs 5y ago
Do debit cards work? If so, maybe get a prepaid debit card, buy stuff with it until it has a very low balance, and from then on use it for age verification.
MisterTea 5y ago
This is clearly Google pushing $12/month youtube red.
- duckfang 5y ago
  redtube you say? redtube.com is a porn site. Its a poor product naming with google. I'd imagine that's going to make for some consternation.
  - crummy 5y ago
    I think the name is now "YouTube Premium"
standardUser 5y ago
A credit card seems like a reasonable way to verify age. Can you think of a better way? Or do you think no content should be age restricted?
- mikro2nd 5y ago
  And if I have no credit card? (I have no credit card. I approach 6 decades in age.)
  - standardUser 5y ago
    Don't debit cards work as well? If you have no debit or credit card, why would any for-profit enterprise want to interact with you in the first place?
    - Cu3PO42 5y ago
      Debit cards work if they're Visa or MasterCard, probably. Many countries have national card schemes for debit cards that do not work.
- JI00912 5y ago
  I doubt it has anything to do with verifying age though. More likely they know people are hesitant to sign up and pay for youtube, but if they can get your credit card in other ways, then later it easier to get you to pay for something because then you just have to press "ok" since your details are already entered. Plus this gives them your identity, which is relevant because their business model nowadays is based around tracking people.
- megous 5y ago
  eIDAS + smart card reader. :) But I guess, google still wants to make the check passable.
rolph 5y ago
toto444 perhaps you have the link to the video your interested in?
- toto444 5y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIrmxOBnKcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIrmxOBnKcs
  - rolph 5y ago
    i get, from USA : from YT: An error occurred. Please try again later. (Playback ID: 5sTGvTkd9YkomV3x) Learn More from YT-DL: $ youtube-dl https://youtu.be/ZIrmxOBnKcs https://youtu.be/ZIrmxOBnKcs [youtube] ZIrmxOBnKcs: Downloading webpage [youtube] ZIrmxOBnKcs: Refetching age-gated info webpage WARNING: unable to download video info webpage: HTTP Error 404: Not Found Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 174, in _run_module_as_main "__main__", fname, loader, pkg_name) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 72, in _run_code exec code in run_globals File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/__main__.py", line 19, in <module> File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 475, in main File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 465, in _real_main File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 2069, in download File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 808, in extract_info File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 815, in wrapper File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 836, in __extract_info File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 534, in extract File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py", line 1502, in _real_extract File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/compat.py", line 2644, in compat_parse_qs File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/compat.py", line 2614, in _parse_qsl AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute 'split' the 404 looks like a take down? or a hug of death?
    - toto444 5y ago
      In that case YT is asking me my details so that I can see that the video has been removed..
m463 5y ago
A friend of mine had trouble with his young kid - he used a youtube video to walk himself through getting a credit card with grandma's birthday money. (I assume the prepaid cards you can get in the grocery store) They found out when they found a nintendo portable full of games in his closet. He was about 12.
- pavel_lishin 5y ago
  How did everything end up shaking out? Were the parents on the hook for the credit card bill, or was the credit card company on the hook for issuing a card to Santos L. Helpar?
  - m463 5y ago
    I think it was a prepaid card.
    - majewsky 5y ago
      So then what's the issue here? Honest question. He got birthday money and spent it on things. That's how it's supposed to work. If he then finds that he cannot purchase something else that he wanted because he blew his budget on video games, that's a valuable lesson that everyone needs to learn at some point.
      - m463 5y ago
        The point is that a credit card is not a proxy for age.
    - CRConrad 5y ago
      Isn't "prepaid credit card" an oxymoron?
Ekaros 5y ago
I wonder if I could just wait a year and pass the filter on virtue of gmail-account being 18 years old...
cbmuser 5y ago
That’s on the EU, not Youtube. EU citizens needs to convince their government(s) that these age restrictions are not acceptable or live with the status quo.
cabalamat 5y ago
> now they ask for a credit card number or an identity card to prove it I got the same thing and it left a bad taste in my mouth -- it felt to me that it was just Google's excuse to hoover up more information about me. No, Google, I am not going to give you my credit card of government issued ID.
dkersten 5y ago
Yep, this happened to me a few weeks ago (even commented about it on a HN thread). I've had this youtube account since about a year after youtube came out and the google account its attached to since about 2005. To not be under 18, I'd have had to be be rather young when I created those accounts. With all the privacy-invading data google and youtube collect on me, surely they know that I'm old enough to watch whatever I like on youtube. But there's no way I am using either of the available methods to verify my age. I'd rather just not watch stuff on youtube.
michaelmrose 5y ago
I just get a sign in to confirm age. Are you absolutely certain you weren't on a third party site?
- johnlorentzson 5y ago
  This is mainly a thing in the EU
genericone 5y ago
This is how youtube and other SV websites will blackhole the undesirable channels and creators, mark my words.
junon 5y ago
A screenshot: https://twitter.com/bad_at_computer/status/1399687685481058305 https://twitter.com/bad_at_computer/status/13996876854810583... I got hit with it too. I even have a youtube premium subscription - they already have my card on file. Google is so incredibly evil.
nottorp 5y ago
I am not going to send my ID card to Google period. Neither will I give them a credit card # unless I'm ... you know ... paying for one of their services. Which isn't likely to happen either. Edit: especially since it's US age ratings which have no connection to EU age ratings. I ran into it while trying to view some collection of every time Samuel L Jackson says "motherfucker" in a movie. For example Pulp Fiction - which is one of the movies - is rated 18 in the US but ... 12 to 16 in various EU countries?

etxm 5y ago

That’s interesting because I had a credit card at 16 (it was on my parent’s account).

carlhjerpe 5y ago
I had a debit at 12 (Visa Electron), my own account but approved at the bank by mom.

buggeryorkshire 5y ago

I had that too. A 14 year old account, with Google Cloud and Google One billing, plus many Google Store purchases and they still wanted me to prove my age. WTF?

gruez 5y ago
That totally makes sense from a software engineering point of view. The age check was probably implemented as a "verified_age" column somewhere, and they didn't bother backfilling it with your existing google account info.
- retSava 5y ago
  Absolutely, but for one of the largest sites on the web, served by one of the richest companies on the planet, being the one company knowing the most about me (and billions more) compared to other companies, and Youtube being probably one of the most profitable sites on the web too, I do expect better.
- PostThisTooFast 5y ago
  It's still shitty programming that inconveniences the user.
- manigandham 5y ago
  It doesn't make sense for a trillion-dollar company known for some of the best software engineering. There are remarkable lapses in UX with Google products.
  - kortilla 5y ago
    Google is the new IBM. There are certainly amazing things being done but 90% of the employees are just doing boring CRUD and have never done anything special.
  - mrweasel 5y ago
    Someday I hope to read an article or watch a talk explaining Googles approach to UX. The best UX in a Google apps seems to be Gmail, and that’s honestly not that good either. Google is able to build insanely complicated infrastructure, design cool languages, they produced fantastic backend software and the they completely forget that people need to interact with it.
    - MiddleEndian 5y ago
      Gmail at some point had a good UX. Nowadays I've switched back to a local mail client because their webmail is weirdly sluggish for no reason.
    - ric2b 5y ago
      The best UX is in products they killed, like Inbox or Play Music.
  - jokethrowaway 5y ago
    Best engineering? Ever tried hiring some of those ex Google contractors? There is plenty of good engineers in Google and plenty of terrible engineers.
    - CRConrad 5y ago
      So their vaunted gruesome job interview process is no more effective than any other company's boring old normal one.
- _joel 5y ago
  That's very convenient for them, if so, but I very much doubt that's the reason.
- wombatpm 5y ago
  Any Googlers reading this discussion? Was there a valid reason for these decisions or did everyone just miss it?

hyfgfh 5y ago

Looks like they are trying to reduce the friction to subscribe to Youtube Premium

andreilys 5y ago
Take a look at the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive [https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/avmsd https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/avmsd] and you'll have your answer for why this feature exists.
veggie_screams 5y ago
YT Premium subscribers also get this prompt. At least I did.

hughrr 5y ago

Same situation here. This, the 2/3 ads being forced down me which are of no interest at all and the constant upselling of YouTube music and the recent shoot down of ad blockers on the desktop browser front really makes it a hostile place to be a consumer of media. I have experimentally uninstalled the YT app off my phone and not used the web site and I haven’t missed it a bit.

cosmojg 5y ago
> the recent shoot down of ad blockers on the desktop browser Mobile browsers have been affected as well. uBlock Origin on Firefox for Android has been letting the ads through recently. Fortunately, NewPipe exists, but it depends on youtube-dl so, while it remains free of ads, it's also affected by this change surrounding age-restricted content. Hopefully people start moving somewhere else within the next few years, maybe PeerTube. Admittedly, YouTube's network effects are disgustingly strong. I wonder what it would take to break them.
- arkh 5y ago
  > I wonder what it would take to break them. Having Android apps could help with people who use an Android device to watch videos on their TV. And if Google does not authorize these kinds of apps on the playstore I think it is more than time to start on an abuse of dominant position suit.
- h4waii 5y ago
  There's also a fork of NewPipe with SponsorBlock support [0], I am hesitant to link it, but I agree that moving off YouTube and centralized networks is the goal. 0. https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe/ https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe/
- app4soft 5y ago
  > Fortunately, NewPipe exists, but it depends on youtube-dl so, while it remains free of ads, it's also affected by this change surrounding age-restricted content. Issue thread is here.[0] [0] https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/6403 https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/6403

jeroenhd 5y ago

AFAIK the age restriction credit card thing (inside the EU) is the result of some stupid law change (the Audiovisual Media Services Directive). Google probably doesn't want to validate users' age (because selling ads to impressionable kids is very lucrative) but they have to now.

StavrosK 5y ago
> Google probably doesn't want to validate users' age (because selling ads to impressionable kids is very lucrative) but they have to now. I mean, I hate this age validation as much as everyone else, curbing advertising to impressionable kids doesn't sound too stupid to me...
- wyager 5y ago
  This is parents’ job, not Google’s. If you legally require Google to act like a parent, they have to do it to everyone.
  - adkadskhj 5y ago
    It _sounds_ like you're speaking in absolutes though, lacking nuance. If you are, my reply to absolutes would be that we should stop enforcing alcohol sales to minors, as it's the parent's job to ensure kids their don't drink. Personally i think age verification is good. This implementation is moronic, though. And all around it's very, very difficult. So difficult that it may never be useful.
    - h_anna_h 5y ago
      > my reply to absolutes would be that we should stop enforcing alcohol sales to minors We absolutely should. Thankfully it is already not enforced in a lot of places (such as in greece).
  - kowlo 5y ago
    I hope I won't be considered presumptuous, but I suspect you don't have children? It is simply impossible to monitor absolutely everything.

ljm 5y ago

I had this happen with the old "Ah fuck, I can't believe you've done this" video. I'm not sure why exactly that has an age restriction, or why I'd give Google some ID to watch a vintage Youtube meme. I presume it's because their ML detected 'fuck' in the audio. Note to Google: Ah fuck, I can't believe you've done this.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Y_Y 5y ago
This encapsulates my feelings perfectly. My Gmail account is 17 years old, but I get a notification on my phone every hour or so, that I must verify my age with Google. Nevermind that I've bought plenty of things from them over the years and that all I want to do is watch a YouTube video they happily showed me many times before. Now I'm shopping for some storage to keep seventeen years of emails etc. so I can do a quick Takeout so that I don't lose access to all my data when I inevitably get unfriended and blocked by them for not being sufficiently compliant.
johnlorentzson 5y ago
Hearing the funny man say fuck now requires ID, wonderful.

swiley 5y ago

You work so hard explaining to your friends good infosec practice like not just typing their credit card in because some site wants to "verify their age" and then Google and Apple just go and fuck around with stuff like this. At this point the best advice you can give your friends is "stay the fuck away from computers unless you're willing to sit down and read a bunch of FOSSS manuals."

dfxm12 5y ago
On one hand, people have given up their credit card for worse pre-Internet or outside of the Internet (like "free" or nearly free trials that turn into a subscription service). On another, Google already has a lot of peoples' credit card numbers by way of Google Pay. Does this expose those people to any more risk?
- dheera 5y ago
  Aren't there some credit cards that can create virtual numbers? Just give them a virtual number and then disable it right after registering. Then have your free trial, and only if you decide to actually subscribe, change it to a credit card number that is active. Businesses should not be unscrupulously trying to make money off people who forgot about the product during their free trial.
  - derwiki 5y ago
    I use Privacy.com to make virtual cards for this purpose.
    - rootusrootus 5y ago
      Does privacy.com still require a debit card? That was what put me off the last time I investigated their service.
      - Chirael 5y ago
        It did the last time I looked into it. I went to set up a privacy.com virtual card for a semi-sketchy site, only to have privacy deny the charge as it was for a "high risk" site. Yeah, I KNOW, that's why I wanted to use a virtual card. That ended my brief foray into privacy.com

chrismorgan 5y ago

> now they ask for a credit card number or an identity card to prove it Related, I can’t install my telco’s app because it’s region-locked to Australia and Google Play Store seems to think I’m in the USA—never mind that my account was created in Australia over fifteen years ago and it’s only been to America twice for a total of less than three months, and that my phone was bought in Australia and set up in Australia, as was my first phone. Seems like a case of an absurd and harmful default. Anyway, the only way to convince them I’m in Australia is to add a billing method. Nope. I’m not giving them billing details. (Now if only the telco would unlock it, as their support staff said they were working on, never mind that the whole process takes less than five minutes and I gave them the help page over a month ago. Or better still, if the telco would just provide a web interface like literally everyone else does, rather than just Apple and Google Android apps. Sigh. If only they weren’t the cheapest for my needs by a large margin.) Also related to the whole age thing, I just started the Google Settings app half an hour ago for other reasons and it triggered a notification asking me to enter my birthday “to help us comply with the law”, expressed even more strongly on the page the notification takes you to as “Your date of birth is missing. This info is needed to comply with the law.”, with a “learn more about why Google asks for this info” link to https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1733224?hl=en-GB https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1733224?hl=en-GB, where the only sort of thing that they could conceivably be referring to as a legal compliance matter would be the minimum age of 13, and… I’ve been using that account for longer than that anyway.

ripdog 5y ago
Have you tried googling the app identifier (grab it from the google play url) to find an APK download?
jsnell 5y ago
Create a new account from an Australian IP, sign it in to your Android phone as a secondary account, and then switch to the new account in Play to install the app. (Once installed, use of the app is not tied to the secondary account in any way.)

LandR 5y ago

Had a video come up as age restricted forcing me to sign into watch. It was a cooking video, they added some form of alcohol to the dish at one point.. I mean, I get it, but it still feels ridiculous.

tzs 5y ago

Do debit cards work? If so, maybe get a prepaid debit card, buy stuff with it until it has a very low balance, and from then on use it for age verification.

MisterTea 5y ago

This is clearly Google pushing $12/month youtube red.

duckfang 5y ago
redtube you say? redtube.com is a porn site. Its a poor product naming with google. I'd imagine that's going to make for some consternation.
- crummy 5y ago
  I think the name is now "YouTube Premium"

standardUser 5y ago

A credit card seems like a reasonable way to verify age. Can you think of a better way? Or do you think no content should be age restricted?

mikro2nd 5y ago
And if I have no credit card? (I have no credit card. I approach 6 decades in age.)
- standardUser 5y ago
  Don't debit cards work as well? If you have no debit or credit card, why would any for-profit enterprise want to interact with you in the first place?
  - Cu3PO42 5y ago
    Debit cards work if they're Visa or MasterCard, probably. Many countries have national card schemes for debit cards that do not work.
JI00912 5y ago
I doubt it has anything to do with verifying age though. More likely they know people are hesitant to sign up and pay for youtube, but if they can get your credit card in other ways, then later it easier to get you to pay for something because then you just have to press "ok" since your details are already entered. Plus this gives them your identity, which is relevant because their business model nowadays is based around tracking people.
megous 5y ago
eIDAS + smart card reader. :) But I guess, google still wants to make the check passable.

rolph 5y ago

toto444 perhaps you have the link to the video your interested in?

toto444 5y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIrmxOBnKcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIrmxOBnKcs
- rolph 5y ago
  i get, from USA : from YT: An error occurred. Please try again later. (Playback ID: 5sTGvTkd9YkomV3x) Learn More from YT-DL: $ youtube-dl https://youtu.be/ZIrmxOBnKcs https://youtu.be/ZIrmxOBnKcs [youtube] ZIrmxOBnKcs: Downloading webpage [youtube] ZIrmxOBnKcs: Refetching age-gated info webpage WARNING: unable to download video info webpage: HTTP Error 404: Not Found Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 174, in _run_module_as_main "__main__", fname, loader, pkg_name) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 72, in _run_code exec code in run_globals File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/__main__.py", line 19, in <module> File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 475, in main File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 465, in _real_main File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 2069, in download File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 808, in extract_info File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 815, in wrapper File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 836, in __extract_info File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 534, in extract File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py", line 1502, in _real_extract File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/compat.py", line 2644, in compat_parse_qs File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/compat.py", line 2614, in _parse_qsl AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute 'split' the 404 looks like a take down? or a hug of death?
  - toto444 5y ago
    In that case YT is asking me my details so that I can see that the video has been removed..

m463 5y ago

A friend of mine had trouble with his young kid - he used a youtube video to walk himself through getting a credit card with grandma's birthday money. (I assume the prepaid cards you can get in the grocery store) They found out when they found a nintendo portable full of games in his closet. He was about 12.

pavel_lishin 5y ago
How did everything end up shaking out? Were the parents on the hook for the credit card bill, or was the credit card company on the hook for issuing a card to Santos L. Helpar?
- m463 5y ago
  I think it was a prepaid card.
  - majewsky 5y ago
    So then what's the issue here? Honest question. He got birthday money and spent it on things. That's how it's supposed to work. If he then finds that he cannot purchase something else that he wanted because he blew his budget on video games, that's a valuable lesson that everyone needs to learn at some point.
    - m463 5y ago
      The point is that a credit card is not a proxy for age.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    Isn't "prepaid credit card" an oxymoron?

Ekaros 5y ago

I wonder if I could just wait a year and pass the filter on virtue of gmail-account being 18 years old...

cbmuser 5y ago

That’s on the EU, not Youtube. EU citizens needs to convince their government(s) that these age restrictions are not acceptable or live with the status quo.

cabalamat 5y ago

> now they ask for a credit card number or an identity card to prove it I got the same thing and it left a bad taste in my mouth -- it felt to me that it was just Google's excuse to hoover up more information about me. No, Google, I am not going to give you my credit card of government issued ID.

dkersten 5y ago

Yep, this happened to me a few weeks ago (even commented about it on a HN thread). I've had this youtube account since about a year after youtube came out and the google account its attached to since about 2005. To not be under 18, I'd have had to be be rather young when I created those accounts. With all the privacy-invading data google and youtube collect on me, surely they know that I'm old enough to watch whatever I like on youtube. But there's no way I am using either of the available methods to verify my age. I'd rather just not watch stuff on youtube.

michaelmrose 5y ago

I just get a sign in to confirm age. Are you absolutely certain you weren't on a third party site?

johnlorentzson 5y ago
This is mainly a thing in the EU

genericone 5y ago

This is how youtube and other SV websites will blackhole the undesirable channels and creators, mark my words.

junon 5y ago

A screenshot: https://twitter.com/bad_at_computer/status/1399687685481058305 https://twitter.com/bad_at_computer/status/13996876854810583... I got hit with it too. I even have a youtube premium subscription - they already have my card on file. Google is so incredibly evil.

nottorp 5y ago

I am not going to send my ID card to Google period. Neither will I give them a credit card # unless I'm ... you know ... paying for one of their services. Which isn't likely to happen either. Edit: especially since it's US age ratings which have no connection to EU age ratings. I ran into it while trying to view some collection of every time Samuel L Jackson says "motherfucker" in a movie. For example Pulp Fiction - which is one of the movies - is rated 18 in the US but ... 12 to 16 in various EU countries?