We are contacting you to let you know that starting September 22, 2020 we’re expanding our age-restriction efforts as part of our ongoing commitment to keeping YouTube creators and viewers safe.
We’ll be expanding the use of automated systems, along with our team of expert reviewers, to apply age-restrictions to videos that aren’t appropriate for all ages. With greater safeguards in place, you may see videos on your channel placed behind an age-restriction, which limits the content to viewers who are at least 18 years old. We anticipate little to no impact to your videos’ monetization, as age-restricted videos are likely not suitable for all advertisers and will have already been rated as limited or ineligible for ads. As always, you can appeal an age-restriction if you believe this was applied in error.
We’re also adjusting the way our age-restriction works off YouTube, prohibiting age-restricted videos to be viewable when embedded on most third-party sites. Users that click on an age-restricted video on another website will be redirected to YouTube, where they will only be able to view the content when logged-in. This will help ensure that no matter where the content is viewed, videos hosted by YouTube will only be viewable by the appropriate audience.
In order to comply with recent regulations, we will also roll out age-verification for users in the EU. If our systems cannot establish that a viewer is over the age of 18, regardless of the age they signed up with on their Google
account, we will request they verify their age using a valid ID or credit card.
You can read more on our Community Guidelines for guidance on when content may be age-restricted, and ways in which you can age-restrict your own content. You can also read more about our efforts to protect our users here.
Thanks,
The YouTube Team