YouTube wants to start asking users for a valid ID or credit card to verify that someone is over 18. YouTube states this in a blog post on their own site.
"If our systems are unable to determine that a viewer is over the age of 18, we will ask them to provide valid ID or a credit card to verify their age," YouTube said.
YouTube indicates regulatory compliance with the European Union's Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). These are guidelines for audiovisual media services. "As part of this process, some users may be asked to provide additional proof of age when attempting to view adult content" indicates YouTube.
Thus, it is not the case that all users in the European Union must do this. Only in cases where YouTube's systems are unsure of a user's age can YouTube ask for such verification.
Until now, age restrictions on YouTube have been determined by the content creators themselves and YouTube's Trust & Safety team. In the future, they plan to lean more on machine learning to review videos and apply any age restrictions. Uploaders would then be able to appeal to YouTube should they disagree with these restrictions.
YouTube has also updated its policy pages regarding Age-restricted content to reflect these changes. "Because our use of technology will result in more age-restricted videos, our policy team took this opportunity to revisit where we draw the line for age-restricted content."
YouTube does not expect the new guidelines to be a problem for uploaders who are part of the YouTube Partner Program. They assume that videos that will be labeled 18-plus in the future do not meet advertiser guidelines anyway now and therefore already have few or no ads. The new guidelines are not going to change that, according to YouTube.
To ensure that age-restricted videos are not shared on other sites and therefore still seen by viewers under 18, YouTube is going to ensure that these videos can only be seen on YouTube's own site. To see the videos, a user must be on YouTube's own site, logged in, and have an account where it is clear that the user is over 18.
Because you must be logged in to view this content, it is unlikely that a VPN can be used to make these YouTube videos available anyway.
