(Credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Don't miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google.
Do you share YouTube Premium Family with people outside your immediate household? Those using an account remotely may soon have their access paused. YouTube is beginning to crack down on users sharing Premium logins outside of the plan manager's home.
Spotted by an Android Police reader, YouTube is sending emails to select users titled, “Your YouTube Premium family membership will be paused.” So far, there’s only one instance of an email being sent, so it may be this a gradual rollout of notifications.
The rules for YouTube Premium Family state that all users must, "Live within the same residential address as the family manager." The person who received this email was accessing the service from an alternative address to the plan manager. The email explains YouTube has tracked evidence of the person not living in the same household.
"It appears you may not be in the same household as your family manager, and your membership will be paused in 14 days," the email says. "Once your access is paused, you will remain in your family group and be able to watch YouTube with ads, but will no longer have YouTube Premium benefits."
YouTube uses a similar technology to Netflix, where it checks which IP address you’ve been using over 30 days. If it notes you haven’t returned to the household, it will flag your account.
YouTube has had these rules in place for a while, and in 2023 it confirmed to Android Authority that it would no longer allow users to include the same billing address as a way to circumvent its rules. Since then, we've not seen YouTube enforce these rules, but that is now changing.
The email sent to the Premium Family user also provides contact information so you can flag any issues, such as a mistake if you do live in the same household.
This is likely a way for YouTube to push users to its individual subscriptions, as well as its new two-member Premium plans that it introduced in May. Netflix saw an increase in subscribers after cracking down on password sharing, so YouTube is likely hoping to see similar.