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submitted 2 months ago by cardamon@leminal.space to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

does anyone know a good workaround for watching age-restricted videos from youtube without being forced to having a google account? i've tried

  • a few browser extensions (very old ones) who promised to solve it. didn't work.
  • downloading them through classic youtube downloading services. didn't work.
  • switching to nsfwyoutube.com/url . didn't work does anyone know of a working solution right now? thanks a lot in advance!!
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[-] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 36 points 2 months ago

Age-gated vids are login-walled full stop, and I won't be surprised if the rest of the site gets login-walled at some point too, in addition to the implementation of DRM so you can't download YT vids anymore, nor use alt clients.

[-] cardamon@leminal.space 13 points 2 months ago

that's so bad...:(

[-] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 months ago

Grayjay does allow you to use an account only for age gate/content gate authentication, so I wonder if there are any burner or public google accounts that could be repurposed for that (junk because multiple people use them)

[-] dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Hmmm.. similar to how Aurora store lets you use one of their google accounts to download from play store. Sounds like a good idea for alt clients (though idk if that involves expensive proxying to avoid passing around tokens so maybe not feasible).

[-] rmerc@lemmy.ml 28 points 2 months ago

I've found no way to do this, tried everything. The question for me has changed to "how do I create a dummy google account for instances when I do seem to need to log in" and I've pretty much given up on this too. They require a phone number; I haven't been able to get them to accept any kind of temporary number service/app I've found online, I could try harder to acquire some kind of more private burner phone or sim card but I feel like they'd just try to verify me once I no longer have access to the number and I'd get frozen out.

[-] SteakSneak@retrolemmy.com 2 points 2 months ago

Did you try paid SMS services or just the free ones? I tried some listed on fmhy but didn't try actually paying for a number

[-] rmerc@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

I never tried a paid one - might be the next step?

[-] SteakSneak@retrolemmy.com 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah I guess so. I don't have a phone that can run graphene or any other privacy OS so I'm running a sort of "hardened" stock android os 🤣 I just want a random google account to download a couple of apps that require play services in order to function

[-] hector@lemmy.today 1 points 2 months ago

Boycott them.

[-] IndigoGollum@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago
[-] LytiaNP@lemmy.today 11 points 2 months ago

Nope, it's not possible to watch age restricted videos without a verified Google account token

[-] cardamon@leminal.space 10 points 2 months ago

it doesn't. i've tried multiple alternative frontends

[-] Zoma@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

I found some of those download youtube sites do work lol. This one works for me i just tested it https://ytdown.to/en2/

[-] CatZoomies@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Verified. I was able to use this to download an age restricted video just now.

[-] Brutticus@midwest.social 2 points 2 months ago

Bless you sir

[-] cardamon@leminal.space 1 points 2 months ago

woww!!! 😌

[-] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 6 points 2 months ago

there used to be a userscript that bypasses it, but sadly it stopped working a few years ago. haven't found a solution since...

[-] onlooker@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago

Bad news, I'm afraid. Tried opening a few restricted videos with PipePipe, FreeTube, tried downloading with yt-dlp, nothing works. YouTube is being locked down.

[-] mukt@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago
[-] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't think so. The members only trend is annoying also.

[-] unknowablenight@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

Copy a link, paste into an mp4 converter (I use cnvmp3.com), watch from files

[-] cardamon@leminal.space 2 points 2 months ago

sheesh!! thanks🤍

[-] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 2 months ago

I think I've had those file converting sites block age restricted videos from there too.

[-] unknowablenight@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

I haven't had a problem with cnvmp3. It worked last time that I tried to do it.

[-] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 2 months ago

I will have to try that one I wrote it down, every time I check they are different, and they used to work better than they do since the enshittening started in earnest in 2021. The search engines don't give you most of them anymore I think is the big problem, I used to use these mp3juices that now are tough and time consuming to get to work and or find stuff.

But I started writing down ones that work so I don't need the search engines as we can't trust them, so thanks I will try that one.

this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
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