YouTube reportedly carries out an electronic check-in every 30 days to confirm if Premium Family plan members share the same address.
YouTube's measure may push users to individual or two-member Premium plans
Photo Credit: Unsplash/ Christian Wiediger
YouTube appears to be cracking down on users who share a YouTube Premium Family subscription while residing outside the plan manager's household. Reports suggest that users are receiving warning emails stating their YouTube Premium access will be suspended if they do not pass the service's location-based verification. This move is similar to the location-based password-sharing restrictions previously enforced by other major streaming platforms. For instance, Netflix reminded users sharing accounts outside one household to create their own subscription. The streaming app continued to allow travel use and verified household devices through IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity.
A report from Android Police reveals that YouTube has begun flagging YouTube Premium Family accounts where members don't reside in the same household as the plan manager. The Premium Family plan allows up to five people to share ad-free access to YouTube and YouTube Music. While the policy has always required members to live under one roof, YouTube rarely enforced it in the past.
That appears to be changing now, and certain users have reportedly received emails titled “Your YouTube Premium family membership will be paused.” The notice warns that YouTube will revoke Premium access within 14 days if its system detects that a user is not at the same physical address as the plan manager.
While flagged members will stay in the family group, they will be limited to watching YouTube with ads unless they verify their eligibility by contacting Google support.
YouTube carries out an electronic check-in every 30 days to confirm if Premium Family plan members share the same address. In the past, the platform didn't strictly enforce this requirement, so members living elsewhere often kept their benefits. This crackdown could now lead to users living in separate households to lose Premium access.
This crackdown likely serves as YouTube's attempt to steer users toward individual subscriptions or its two-member Premium plans launched in May. After Netflix gained more subscribers by restricting password sharing, YouTube now seems to be aiming for a comparable result.
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