Like popular OTT platforms, YouTube has a family plan that lets users share Premium perks with up to five other family members. Priced at Rs 299 per month, the plan gives you access to several features like background play, ad-free video streaming, the option to skip segments in videos, and Smart Downloads, to name a few.
And while YouTube does require all family plan members to be located in the same household, the video streaming platform hadn’t enforced it until now.
However, like Netflix, YouTube has now started flagging accounts that are part of the family plan but don’t share the same address as the family manager. According to a report by Android Police, YouTube is sending some users emails telling them that their YouTube Premium membership will be paused.
Here’s a screenshot of the email some YouTube users are getting. (Image Source: Android Police)
The email reads, ” Your YouTube Premium family membership requires all members to be in the same household as the family manager. It appears you may not be in the same household as your family manager, and your membership will be paused in 14 days. 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.”
On a support page about the YouTube Family plan, the video streaming platform says it conducts “an electronic check-in” every 30 days to see if members in the family group live in the same residential address as the manager.
When a member is flagged, they will retain their member status, but will lose out on Premium benefits. However, Google does give users the option to “confirm eligibility and maintain access” via its support forum. In a statement to CNET, a YouTube spokesperson said that their “family plan policy hasn’t changed.” Also, family groups can only be modified once every 12 months.
And while not many YouTube users have gotten any such emails, YouTube may decide to enforce geographical location restrictions in the future. We will have to see if Google will go as far as Netflix when it comes to password sharing or decide to take back its decision.
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