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YouTube is putting new age restrictions on gun videos

YouTube quietly snuck in a policy change that will age-restrict some gun-related videos and bar others altogether. Content featuring homemade and automatic firearms will be banned for viewers under 18, while tutorials for removing safety devices will be prohibited regardless of age.

YouTube added that the prohibitions will apply to the real use of firearms and won’t pertain to video games, film clips or other artistic content. The change comes a year after the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog group, called out YouTube for recommending gun-related content to several “child” accounts the organization set up to see how easily the platform’s algorithms nudged underage users towards gun videos. “YouTube’s policy changes to age-restrict gun content are a step in the right direction, given that firearms are the number one cause of death for children and teens in America, but it’s not clear why it took the company so long to address the issue,” TTP Director Katie Paul wrote in a press release.

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