Do you share a family premium youtube with friends? Bad news: YouTube has started canceling accounts

YouTube has begun to strictly apply one of the most ignored norms of its family premium plan: the obligation that all members live in the same house. Several users who share their subscription with people from other homes have begun to receive electronic warning emails, pointing out a policy change that until now had not been applied seriously.

The Youtube Premium family plan, which includes YouTube Music, allows to add up to five members for € 25.99 per month (a price that has been rising over the years), but always under the condition that everyone resides in the same home as the administrator. The notice that is reaching offenders indicates that their membership will be paused in 14 days. Once that period has elapsed, the user will remain in the family group, but will lose all the benefits of the subscription, returning to the free version of YouTube with ads.

A monthly verification and a still limited application

In the mail you see in the superior image, it says the following:

His family members of YouTube Premium requires that all members be in the same home as the family administrator. It seems that it is possible that it is not in the same home as its family administrator and their membership will be suspended in 14 days. Once your access is paused, you will remain in your family group and you can see YouTube with ads, but you will no longer have the benefits of YouTube Premium.

As mentioned in Android Police, to verify the location of the members, YouTube performs a “Monthly electronic verification”. Although this system has been implemented for some time, it did not seem to have real consequences for those who did not meet the norm. The current change indicates that the company has decided to start using these data to enforce its terms of service more rigorously.

For the moment, The measure does not seem to be massive. The reports are still isolated and some cases have been seen in forums such as Reddit in recent months, but the appearance of new notices confirms the new position of the company. Affected users are offered the option to contact Google support through a form to “confirm eligibility and maintain access.”

This movement aligns YouTube with the tendency of other streaming platforms, such as Netflix, which in recent years have intensified their efforts to limit the shared use of accounts between people who do not live together, thus seeking to increase the number of direct subscribers.