YouTube is now following in the footsteps of Netflix and Disney+, as it’s started to crack down on usage of YouTube Premium Family plans at different locations.
The service is alerting people who are using an account that’s part of a Premium Family group but at a different location than the family manager that their membership will be paused in 14 days.
This is because, as per YouTube’s Premium family membership terms of service, all members of each family plan have to be in the same household as the family manager.
This isn’t a recent change, it’s always been like that, it’s just that YouTube has only now started enforcing this rule, undoubtedly in a bid to get more revenue, as the people whose Family plan memberships will be paused will now have to get some subscription of their own.
YouTube currently doesn’t have a Netflix-like system to have those people pay a certain amount (that’s still cheaper than a full subscription) to be let back in, and it’s unclear if it will ever offer anything like that. So all you can do is pony up the full YouTube Premium subscription fee, or just give up on the service altogether.
