How to access age-restricted content on YouTube

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 11, 2017
Updated • Jan 4, 2018
Companies, Music and Video, Youtube
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YouTube may place age restrictions on content, for instance if the content includes violence or disturbing images, nudity, vulgar language or the portrayal of harmful activities.

This age restriction flag is placed by YouTube's review team. The flag prevents that users who are not logged in may watch the video, that logged in users who are not 18 years of age or older may watch it, and that users who are in Restricted  Mode may watch it.

Users who are not signed in (in a Google or YouTube account), get the following message when they try to watch a video with an age restriction flag.

Age-restricted content

youtube video sign in to confirm your age

It reads:

Sign in to confirm your age This video may be inappropriate for some users

 

The message that users get when they are signed in to an account but not 18 years of age or older is slightly different.

sorry this content is age restricted

This message states "sorry, this content is age-restricted".

While you may be able to resolve the first message by signing in provided that you are 18 years of age or older, you may not watch these videos on YouTube if you are younger.

A common issue for users who are old enough is that they have not set a birthday yet. If a birthday is not linked to the Google or YouTube account, YouTube will display the age-restricted content message.

Here is how to fix that:

  1. Load https://myaccount.google.com/birthday in your browser of choice. Note that you need to sign in to your Google account if you have not done so.
  2. Click on the edit button on the page to add or edit the birthday.
  3. Set the birthday on the next page and save it.

Once you have set the birthday, you can watch age-restricted videos on YouTube (provided that you are 18 years of age or older).

Restricted Mode

youtube restricted mode

Restricted Mode is an optional setting on YouTube that blocks some content from being shown on the site. This may be set by a system administrator, or on family computer systems to protect minors from watching videos on YouTube that may not be suitable for them.

YouTube uses signals, automatic ones such as video titles or descriptions, and manual ones, to add the restricted mode flag to videos. Restricted mode furthermore blocks comments on YouTube.

Here is how you toggle Restricted Mode on YouTube:

  1. Open the YouTube website.
  2. Click on your account icon. If you are not signed in, sign in to your account.
  3. Restricted Mode is listed at the bottom of the menu that opens when you click on the account icon on YouTube. You can read the status there directly.
  4. Click on Restricted Mode.
  5. Toggle Restricted Mode so that it reads off (or on if you want to enable it).

youtube enable disable restricted mode

 

Summary
How to access age-restricted content on YouTube
Article Name
How to access age-restricted content on YouTube
Description
The guide walks you through the steps of accessing age-restricted videos on YouTube, and how to turn Restricted Mode off on YouTube.
Author
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. The Dark Lady said on July 9, 2023 at 11:19 am
    Reply

    Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.

    Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).

    For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.

    You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.

    If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.

  2. KeZa said on August 17, 2023 at 5:58 pm
    Reply

    AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI

  3. Database failure said on August 18, 2023 at 5:21 pm
    Reply

    Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.

    Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.

  4. Howard Pearce said on August 25, 2023 at 12:24 pm
    Reply

    Don’t tell me!

    Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!

    Bring in the dictatorship!!!

    And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe

  5. Howard Allan Pearce said on September 7, 2023 at 9:13 am
    Reply

    GateKeeper ?

    That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!

    But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!

  6. owl said on September 7, 2023 at 9:50 am
    Reply

    @The Dark Lady,
    @KeZa,
    @Database failure,
    @Howard Pearce,
    @Howard Allan Pearce,

    Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.

    The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
    >> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
    Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
    >> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
    As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
    How to display only articles by a specific author:
    Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
    >> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033

    By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
    RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
    >> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme

  7. Anonymous said on September 14, 2023 at 6:41 pm
    Reply

    We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.

  8. Anonymous said on September 18, 2023 at 1:31 pm
    Reply

    “Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”

    Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.

  9. sean conner said on September 27, 2023 at 6:21 am
    Reply

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