YouTube has reportedly been cracking down on Premium Family Plan users operating their accounts outside of the same household. The proverbial hunt for “errant” users has increased of late, although it should be noted that its requirement has been in place since 2023.
The streaming account is now actively flagging accounts that are part of its plan, but are not physically located in the same household as the primary account holder or family manager. For one member at the new outlet, Android Police, they said that they received an email from YouTube with the title “Your YouTube Premium family membership will be paused.”
“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.”
YouTube’s family plan costs RM41.90 per month, and allows users to add up to five family members to the plan. Once flagged, users will still retain their family member status, but none of the benefits that come with the Premium subscription.
YouTube Premium shuts door on cross-country Family Plans – Permanently
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The level of enforcement also seems to be rather inconsistent, with the Android Police staff’s treatment seeming rather mild. One Redditor, who is based in India, made a post of Reddit saying that YouTube Premium effectively shut down their Family plan subscription.
(Source: Android Police, Reddit)
