“This video is age-restricted and only available on YouTube.”
“Sign in to confirm your age. This video may be inappropriate for some users.”
Why it happened?
You can't play age-restricted YouTube videos if your Google account age is set to under 18, or if you're not logged into your YouTube account.
There are a few ways around YouTube content restrictions on the Internet, but after my testing, most of them are no longer available (as described in the last part of the article). For now, the most effective solution is to download age-restricted YouTube videos, then watch them.
With an all-in-one and trustworthy program - Cisdem Video Converter installed on your computer, you can download age-restricted YouTube videos quickly in 360p to 8K quality. Plus, you can convert age-restricted YouTube videos to MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WebM, MP3, M4A, WAV, etc. with ease.
Other than YouTube, Cisdem Video Converter also supports downloading Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Dailymotion, Bilibili, and more videos with age restrictions.
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
Free Download macOS 10.12 or later
How can Cisdem benefit you?
Despite its professionalism and multiple features, it is simple enough to use and any novice can easily pick it up. In addition, the Mac version is missing some features that will be upgraded in September to improve it.
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
Free Download macOS 10.12 or later
How to download age-restricted YouTube videos with subtitles (only 3 steps):
1. Launch Cisdem Video Converter and switch to the “Download” module.
2. Copy, paste, and parse the YouTube link.
Copy the link to the age-restricted YouTube video.
Paste it into the empty field at the Cisdem’s bottom. Hit “Enter” to load the video.
Tip one:
Before parsing the video, please make sure you are logged in to your YouTube video account in your browser, otherwise you will receive the following message.
You don't have to sign in to your YouTube account inside the software, which keeps your YouTube account safe.
Tip two:
You can add multiple age-restricted or other YouTube video links at once, and start parsing them at the same time. To bring up the text box to paste multiple URLs, you should:
On Windows: Click the “+” icon in the bottom left corner of the interface.
On Mac: In the menu bar, go to “File > input URLs”.
3. Initiate the download process.
Choose the video format/resolution/video encoder (vp9, av01, avc1), subtitle language/format, and output location. Then start downloading YouTube videos with age restrictions on Windows or Mac.
Tip three:
vp9 is a newer codec, and it may not open in your computer's built-in video player. You can use another encoder or another video player software, such as VLC. Note that the options in the format list are sorted by quality.
If you want to download age-restricted YouTube videos to formats other than MP4, WebM, and M4A. Drag the downloaded videos into the "Convert" module for processing, which has a variety of formats.
yt-dlp is an open source command line audio/video downloader, a fork of youtube-dl. It can download age-restricted, private and live YouTube videos. If your age-restricted videos contain subtitles, yt-dlp can automatically download them and let you choose the language.
It also supports video downloads from many other sites, you can see them all at https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/supportedsites.md.
Although it is as powerful a tool as Cisdem Video Converter, the lack of a graphical user interface makes it much more difficult to operate and understand.
To download an age-restricted YouTube video using yt-dlp:
Get some tips to improve your yt-dlp experience:
NewPipe is an open source and lightweight YouTube video downloader on Android. It helps you watch and download YouTube age-restricted videos for free, without ads and with support for background playback.
You can pre-set the formats that YouTube will save to: MPEG-4, WebM, or 3GP for video files; M4A or WebM for audio files. It's also possible to set default resolution, but you can only save YouTube age-restricted videos up to 1080p, even if it's a 4K video.
NOTE: The iPhone App Store is very strict about app management and therefore does not offer apps for downloading age-restricted videos. If you are an iPhone user, I recommend downloading the video on your computer first and then transferring it to your phone, or jump to Solution 4 and use an online service.
How to download YouTube age-restricted video for free on Android:
Don't want to download and install extra apps? If so, try some age-restricted YouTube video downloaders for computer and mobile. They make it easy and simple to save online videos directly to your device via a web browser.
However, there are significant drawbacks of online video downloaders compared to software:
Most online tools can only download public and free YouTube videos, and very few can download age-restricted ones. I've picked out the following 3 that are workable:
Take ToMP3.cc as an example and see how you can use it to download age-restricted videos from YouTube online:
I tested some popular methods, and the results are displayed below.
Methods | Is it still usable |
---|---|
Use a proxy service | X |
Insert nsfw before youtube.com in URL | X |
Replace “watch?v=” in the URL with “embed/” | X |
Replace “https://www.” in the URL with “pwn” | X |
Change your birth date on Google account | X |
Install browser extension and user script | √ |
Since I can view age-restricted YouTube videos with the help of a browser plugin, how exactly does it work?
This method works with Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Edge.
If you're an Android user, you can watch age-restricted YouTube videos directly on NewPipe.
Why is my YouTube age-restricted when I'm over 18?
Whether it's for watching, storing, or editing YouTube videos with age restriction, saving them locally solves all your problems. Choose the best YouTube video downloader to download age-restricted YouTube videos easily without hassle.
Emily is a girl who loves to review various multimedia software. She enjoys exploring cutting edge technology and writing how-to guides. Hopefully her articles will help you solve your audio, video, DVD and Blu-ray issues.