Finding ways to keep your children entertained on YouTube can be hard, especially if the videos you want them to watch are age-restricted and you’re not old enough to sign in to verify that you’re over 18 years of age. Luckily, there’s a simple hack you can use that will allow you and your kids to watch any video on YouTube that’s age-restricted – as long as it’s not been made private by the creator – with no additional sign-in required. Here’s how it works!

How to Access Age-Restricted Videos

• Click on the YouTube video of the song/video you want to watch, but don’t press play yet. 
• Press Ctrl+Shift+H in your browser (Command+Shift+H for Macs) 
• A dialogue box will appear with an option to have the video tricked into playing even if it is age restricted. 
• Click on the triangle and select either Flash or HTML5, whichever is available for that video. This can be found in the bottom left corner of the dialogue box that popped up after pressing Ctrl+Shift+H at step 2 above. 
• Press Play and enjoy!

Create An Unofficial Chrome Extension

I decided to create an unofficial Chrome extension that would be designed to circumvent the requirement of entering in a user’s date of birth. When the user navigates to a video on YouTube and clicks on it, the extension will identify the age restriction for that video, create a popup window with a button that says PEEK, and prompt you to enter your date of birth or have one randomly generated. After clicking PEEK or entering your date of birth, you’ll be able to view restricted videos without signing in. I created this for people who don’t want their personal information available for any person who may stumble across their account on public computers at schools, libraries, and coffee shops.

Install the Extension On Any Browser

Install the extension by heading to the app store on your browser of choice and inputting the youtube content blocker into the search bar. Head over to Youtube, and play an age-restricted video that you’d like to watch. Click on the extension icon in your toolbar, and select a country from the list. Then hit save and refresh the page, and you should be good to go!

Here’s how it works: Installing this youtube content blocker (click here) will allow you to watch any video, regardless of its age restriction. Go ahead and install it on any browser – chrome, safari, etc. Once installed, head over to Youtube and find a video with restricted viewing based on your location such as

Click Watch on Another Device Instead Of Sign in

In order to watch age-restricted videos on YouTube without signing in, all you have to do is click the watch on another device button. This will make the video available to you, no matter what browser or device it’s viewed from. Just make sure your phone or computer is connected to the same WiFi network as your TV. 

*This feature only works with live streaming videos so you won’t be able to download them!

Enjoy Age-Restricted Content

Anyone with a video account on YouTube has undoubtedly had that moment when they are clicking on a video and get the message, This video is not available in your country. There’s an easy way to solve this problem without having to sign up for a new account. 

When you find that frustrating age-restricted content, click on the three dots at the top right of the player. A dropdown menu will appear with an option that says Restrictions. Clicking it will reveal your current settings as well as allow you to change them. If you select no restrictions, then you can see all of the content being presented no matter what geographic location it was originally uploaded from. The only downside?