YouTube made news over the summer when announcing that they would start using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to guess users’ ages, and would limit access for anyone they determined to be minors. The content limited could include anything considered gory, violent, sexually suggestive, vulgar, or otherwise objectionably for younger audiences. These changes started on August 13, 2025. If your account was labelled as likely an underage user, you would have to provide goverment ID, a credit card, or other identification to prove your age. Out of concerns that people would lie on their registration, YouTube said it would not consider birthdates submitted to be verified.
One of the ways that it is doing so is by turning on “restricted mode” for users. “Restricted mode” is an option that, according to Google, has been available since 2010 for all users to opt into. Certain organization-controlled accounts also have this option on automatically, sometimes locking the feature for users. Google says that this option is turned off by default (excepting when organizations turn it off for group accounts), though comment sections of YouTubers and Redditors bringing up this issue have included users who claim otherwise. Personally, on my phone, YouTube on my primary account showed the option, though my secondary account (that I use for research for things I don’t want to impact my normal recommendations) didn’t the option. On my computer, neither my primary nor my secondary had the option.
It’s unclear what is and isn’t restricted for each user when this feature is turned on. Comments under Queen Coke Francis’s YouTube post about this issue ranged from entire channels to one random Antique Roadshow video. That said, it is in keeping with similar moves on other platforms, such as Instagram earlier this year. It’s another incident in a long line of concerns that tech companies are censoring viewpoints.
To check if “restricted mode” is turned on for you, or to turn it off:
- On mobile (Android), select your profile, click the three dots, and select “Settings”. Scroll down to “General”, and then scroll down to “Restricted mode.”
- On mobile (iOS), select your profile, click the three dots, and select “Settings”. Scroll down to “Restricted mode.”
- On desktop browser, once logged into an account, select your profile, and select “Settings” from the dropdown. Scroll down to “Restricted mode.”
In any of these cases, if the box is grayed out, this means an administrator is in control of the setting. Contact the account administrator. If you are like me, and the box just doesn’t show up, there’s really not much that can be done. Note that you need to do this setting for each account on each device, and that it may be turned back on if connected to age restriction protocols or other issues.
