Youtube Age Restricted Content
Since the latest update (76.01), Firefox will no longer played age restricted content on Youtube. It prompts with the Age Restricted warning and asks if you wish to proceed. I click in the affirmative and it's adds a verified=1 argument to the link and attempts to proceed to the video. But then it pops up the denied because the video is age restricted error. I have double checked and don't have any age restrictions options selected (either in Firefox, Youtube or Google settings). I am over 50, so none of those 3 sites would be popping it up because it thinks I'm under age. All age restricted videos played perfectly fine before this latest update. I have cleared all cookes and cache, signed out and back in to Youtube and Google accounts and nothing helps. I can copy the exact link into Chrome and the video plays fine as normal. I have disabled all add-ons and used safe browsing with no success in viewing such videos.
All Replies (8)
Did you check this setting in YouTube?
Safety Mode - YouTube Help:
Just checked it again and yes restricted mode is turned off. I have carefully checked all associated accounts (Youtube, Google, Firefox) to ensure no restricted or age restriction options are turned on. This was entirely caused by this latest Firefox update. Thanks for your input and the suggestion, open to all suggestions.
Does Firefox send a "Prefer: safe" header in the HTTP request headers ?
Modified by cor-el
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irhmmuh7YMs
No it shows no Prefer: safe reading as far as I can see. But I'm unskilled with Firefox's Network Monitor, so I've sent a sample link to an age restricted video (the content is ASMR lens licking). So you can look for yourself, with your greater experience. I don't think of it as adult material, but some people are very sensitive about it. If I'm not allowed to post links to content here, just let me know and I'll delete it.
I realized after my above reply that you need to see my results on my system. I assume you're looking to see if I have a safe search setting turned on with this. I did my best to find the right file to be looking at and took a screen shot of my readout. I hope I did it correctly.
If Firefox doesn't send the "Prefer: safe" header (it doesn't show in the screenshot) then this means YouTube thinks for other reasons that this content is age restricted. This could be on the operating system level or via a proxy or VPN.
You can check the connection settings.
- Options/Preferences -> General -> Network: Connection -> Settings
If you do not need to use a proxy to connect to internet then try to select "No Proxy" if "Use the system proxy settings" or one of the others do not work properly.
See "Firefox connection settings":
I checked and in fact I did have it set to use system proxy. I set it to no proxy and closed and restarted browser and network monitor, also made sure my VPN was turned off. Video still won't load for age restricted reason and still no safe setting in network readout. Thanks for all these suggestions, I wasn't aware of any of them to try. I need my system tomorrow so can't do it then. But the next day or so after, I'm going to try a full uninstall and reinstall of latest Firefox. And hope it fixes whatever setting has gotten stuck in the wrong setting. Thank you again for your assistance with this!
You may have to clear YouTube cookies as this choice might have been saved in a cookie once set.