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Got Hit with YouTube Age Verification Check (piefedimages.s3.eu-central-003.backblazeb2.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/privacy@programming.dev
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Last week I tried to watch the "Shut the Fuck Up PSA" from the National Lawyers Guild, and it was age blocked. I did try to log in, but now you have to VERIFY your age too (obviously I clicked off that shit).

But honestly, alternative frontends like Freetube and yt-dlp might not make the cut anymore:

Mpv crashed, and Invidious instances keep saying "video may not be age appropriate"

Edit: My state is soon to perform age verification on social media sites, so this is probably the cause. I'll just have to VPN to other states or countries until VPNs fail/are blocked.

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[–] 7 points 11 months ago (1 child)

Seems more like unecessary corpo powertripping, to me.

Under normal circumstances I'd assume so too. But age verification laws are popping up all over the world and are bound to be VERY different in Aus vs EU vs each of the 25 US states with these new laws. Remember that the companies didn't want any of this - but now that they have to act, they also can be held accountable for failure to act (or insufficient solutions).

And on this one, unlike our horrendous failure to enforce antitrust laws in the US, I do expect to see enforcement somewhere in the chain, at least in the short to mid term. The first lawsuit will become the framework for dozens more to follow against a single company if they don't comply sufficiently.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Remember that the companies didn’t want any of this -

    It'd be nice if those companies used their millions of lobbying dollars to tell lawmakers just how stupid this shit is.

    They won't, though, because knowing exactly who you are and then verifying it via government documents or biometrics is way more valuable than the users lost who won't verify.

    They "don't want it", but they actually do.

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