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YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

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

#311

As someone else mentioned in the comments, the "get cookies.txt" [0] extension works to circumvent the age restricted measure and i have been using it with success for weeks now. get the extension, export the cookies.txt file to a folder, then run youtube-dl in that folder with: youtube-dl --cookies cookies.txt https://youtu.be/id it works as of right this minute [1] and in my experience that cookie continues to work…

youtube-dl does have “—-username” and “—-password” flags, or will prompt for a password if you just specify “-u”.

https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#authentication-option...

But as of a couple days ago it wasn’t working for age-restricted videos.

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

#312

As someone else mentioned in the comments, the "get cookies.txt" [0] extension works to circumvent the age restricted measure and i have been using it with success for weeks now. get the extension, export the cookies.txt file to a folder, then run youtube-dl in that folder with: youtube-dl --cookies cookies.txt https://youtu.be/id it works as of right this minute [1] and in my experience that cookie continues to work…

> the "get cookies.txt" [0] extension works to circumvent the age restricted measure

Doesn't that only work if you a) are in the EU and have verified your age or b) outside the EU?

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

#313
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...

The only possibility is to get out of Youtube (and other walled gardens) as soon as possible. Talk to your favorite content producers about Peertube, maybe setup an instance with some friends if you're sure you can handle that for the coming decade and not close down in 6 months time. Both viewers and producers are heavily dissatisfied with Youtube. Time to move on.

If you allow adult videos without age verification you'll get shut down.

YouTube actually allowing adult videos is not something to diss. The fact that they need age verification is the price for it, the alternative is removing all those videos.

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

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must be. On major mobile networks in the UK, SIM cards/data plans by default have an adult content internet filter enabled. Blocks stuff like pornography (obviously) and even some other various adult age-focused content like gaming websites. (I've seen the EA Battlefield/Call Of Duty websites blocked before) Usually if you try to access, say, pornhub.com, it'll redirect (ala. WiFi captive portal style) to an internal…

This only reinforces my image of the UK as a long since resigned totalitarian police state — that, along with the huge 1984-esque CCTV posters with giant eyes hanging watchfully over a dreary autumn midday in London.

It's hilarious. If this technology existed 50 years ago you can be sure they'd be filtering out any homosexual content. "We must protect the children from filth" after all. Good old nanny state.

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

#316

As someone else mentioned in the comments, the "get cookies.txt" [0] extension works to circumvent the age restricted measure and i have been using it with success for weeks now. get the extension, export the cookies.txt file to a folder, then run youtube-dl in that folder with: youtube-dl --cookies cookies.txt https://youtu.be/id it works as of right this minute [1] and in my experience that cookie continues to work…

But I don't want to use the cookies, I used youtube-dl exactly to watch age-restricted videos without signing-in. I don't want YouTube to track which videos I watch and make history-based suggestions so I never sign-in and reset cookies often. I occasionally stumble upon age-restricted videos and feel curious what's there but I don't want any of them to influence what does YouTube believe my interests are so I just use youtube-dl INSTEAD of signing-in.

And by the way, I always mostly used random birth dates whenever registering anywhere because I consider that personal information and don't want to share it. I don't even know what birth date did I set when I got my GMail back in the days it required invitations.

I don't feel like watching an age-restricted video ever again if this actually requires identification and leaves no workaround.

UPDATE: I'm actually surprised this gets down-voted.

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

#317
post #90
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

It's really bad but seems to be some EU law, this isn't something Google ever wanted. An alternative would be entering your passport or something which would be even crazier

It's not required by the EU. If not all the sites that have content not appropriate for children, such as porn sites, or Reddit, would need to implement this. And of course you wouldn't give your ID or credit card to a porn site.

Google is the only company that started to implement this. To me it's not required by law but they decided to do so to get more user data. Also because having a credit card doesn't confirm nothing about your age. I use a credit card to buy things online since I'm 13, you can have a credit card even if you are not 18, simply your parents need to sign for it, but then it can have your name on it.

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

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so tired of tech people saying "it has to suck because the law requires it", when they clearly haven't read it. You hear it all the time when discussing tracking banners or ID verification. NO, the law does NOT require your implementation to suck, and most laws give you plenty of leeway in how you implement it. This is really not personal, but I HATE the argument. Take this as an example. The AVMSD isn't new, it…

> I'm so tired of tech people saying "it has to suck because the law requires it", when they clearly haven't read it. [..] The AVMSD isn't new, it was codified in 2010. It has a website[1] You know, if you were going to rant about people not reading things, you probably should have first validated your own assumptions. AVMSD was just updated ( https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/revision-a... ) which ju…

> if you were going to rant about people not reading things, you probably should have first validated your own assumptions

I did, but I didn't stumble on this revision. Now that you linked it, I see hints everywhere that I should have noticed the first time around. Thanks for bringing it up. Although, I'm rather unhappy if my rant was taken to be about reading comprehension though. It really wasn't. I'm annoyed at people blaming laws for poor implementation.

To tackle the revision though, lets looks at the revised text. It's kind of hard to get a hold of, since the EU document database is apparently down, but i managed to find a copy[1]. The relevant text seems to be:

    establishing and operating age verification systems for users of video-sharing platforms with respect to content which may impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors;
Even here, it only calls for age verification. Again, there's no requirement for checking credit cards or passports. If we look at one of the drafts of the now enacted law[2], we see that they seem way more concerned with the differentiated moderation between platforms than the adequacy of the age verification process. We have to keep in mind that watershed (only showing adult content after a certain time) is considered an appropriate way of deterring minors from watching. The EU commission clearly don't think we should disallow children at any cost.

I don't think it's on my to find a better implementation for YouTube, but with all the smart engineers they have access to, I would think they could come up with something less intrusive.

[1]: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TC1-COD-2016-0...

[2]: https://www.eu.dk/samling/20161/kommissionsforslag/kom(2016)... Page 20 around the middle of the page.

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

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently you'll need to scan an ID if you don't have a credit card, and I bet the EU has millions of young adults without a credit card. Either way, the end result is that you cannot use a video service without exposing your real identity to the service provider. And for what? Is there an epidemic of video clips wrecking children's minds I'm not aware of? Lacking that, this doesn't seem even remotely justified. All…

> And for what? Is there an epidemic of video clips wrecking children's minds I'm not aware of? I mean... maybe. I have young children and have no desire to have them anywhere near YouTube for essentially as long as possible _because_ of that very concern.

Well it should be your responsibility to control what your children see online, on the web there are things fare worse than the one you can see on YouTube.

I don't see why YouTube should ask your ID where most sites that host adult content doesn't.

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