Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- YouTube seems to be cracking down on Premium Family plan members who don’t live in the same household as the plan manager.
- Users are reportedly receiving warning emails that their Premium access will be paused if they fail YouTube’s location-based check-in.
- This mirrors location-based password-sharing crackdowns by Netflix and other major streaming services.
If you’ve been freeloading on a YouTube Premium Family plan from outside the “family home,” the party might be coming to an end. YouTube seems to have started tightening its grip on Premium Family plan sharing in accordance with its longstanding policy.
As reported by an Android Police reader, YouTube has started actively flagging Premium Family accounts where members don’t actually live in the same household as the plan manager.
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At $23 a month, the YouTube Premium Family plan lets you share ad-free YouTube and YouTube Music access with up to five people. Officially, those people have always been required to live under one roof, but YouTube has never been strict about enforcing the rule. That seems to be changing now.
Some users are receiving emails with the subject line “Your YouTube Premium family membership will be paused.” The message warns that if YouTube’s systems detect you’re not at the same physical address as your plan manager, you’ll lose Premium access within 14 days. Members who are flagged will still stay in the family group but will only be able to watch YouTube with ads unless they contact Google support to verify their eligibility.
YouTube already runs an electronic check-in every 30 days to determine if members of a Premium Family plan reside in the same location, but until now, the platform hasn’t really restricted members living in different locations. Now, living in different households could get your Premium privileges revoked.
YouTube’s latest restrictions are in line with what other streaming giants like Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and others have done. Netflix’s crackdown was one of the first in the industry and sparked massive outrage, though the company later boasted subscriber growth following the change. YouTube could be betting on a similar outcome, even if it risks upsetting longtime subscribers. That said, not a lot of people are reporting this right now, so you might still have some time before YouTube starts implementing the restrictions widely.
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