YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#51

Post by fernandotakai » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

nonamesleft wrote: post #32

prg318 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yt-dlp actually does have the same issue (at least when connecting from the US): ./yt-dlp.sh " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR8s72aouNE " [youtube] rR8s72aouNE: Downloading webpage [youtube] rR8s72aouNE: Refetching age-gated info webpage ERROR: Sign in to confirm your age This video may be inappropriate for some users.

Seems to be video-dependent, tried the one you posted, and it seems to fail, but another one " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY4Gz_Axpew " worked with yt-dlp but not youtube-dl. Guess it's the beginning of the end of watching youtube for me soon. EDIT: From an EU ip.

i tried "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR8s72aouNE" and your link and both return the same thing -- age restricted -- from south america.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#52

Post by cosmojg » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

hughrr wrote: post #38

toto444 wrote: post #14

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!

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.

> 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.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#53

Post by rorykoehler » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:26 PM UTC

bencollier49 wrote: post #34

I've found YouTube increasingly unusable in general over the last few months. It seems to be pushing absolute rubbish at me. There's a gap in the market for a music-only video service.

All the videos start in potato quality for me now. What is going on? Surely they can afford the bandwidth of all services?

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#54

Post by StavrosK » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #43

toto444 wrote: post #14

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!

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.

> 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...

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#55

Post by dawnerd » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

booleandilemma wrote: post #29

spentu wrote: post #22

I noticed this yesterday and now I am wondering what to do. Especially when more and more videos are getting flagged. ID is out of the question, credit card seems more plausible. However, i wonder what happens when you give the number. I don't want that it sticks after validation...

Would it be worth it to just get a credit card for the sole purpose of youtube-dl? Maybe put some kind of limit on it, if possible?

I’d use a temp card from privacy.com or something.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#56

Post by macinjosh » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:30 PM UTC

Another great Internet snafu brought to you by over reaching EU technocrats.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#57

Post by slazaro » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

It's pretty infurating that I've had a Youtube account since 2006 (15 years ago), and now they're asking me whether i'm over 18. A basic calculation on their end could filter the accounts based on age, given the TOS of when they were created (e.g. if the TOS specified that I must be over 13, a 2006 account would mean I'm at least 28, therefore automatically verified).

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#58

Post by dfxm12 » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

swiley wrote: post #46

toto444 wrote: post #14

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!

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."

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?

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#59

Post by wyager » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:34 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #54

jeroenhd wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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...

This is parents’ job, not Google’s.

If you legally require Google to act like a parent, they have to do it to everyone.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#60

Post by chrismorgan » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 2:35 PM UTC

toto444 wrote: post #14

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!

> 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, 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.