Last week I tried to watch the "Shut the Fuck Up PSA" from the National Lawyers Guild, and it was age blocked. I did try to log in, but now you have to VERIFY your age too (obviously I clicked off that shit).
But honestly, alternative frontends like Freetube and yt-dlp might not make the cut anymore:
Mpv crashed, and Invidious instances keep saying "video may not be age appropriate"
Edit: My state is soon to perform age verification on social media sites, so this is probably the cause. I'll just have to VPN to other states or countries until VPNs fail/are blocked.
This is quite common actually. Not sure why you think it's weird. It could literally be the "Fuck" in the title that age restricts it. This is why Youtube creators have been bleeping out every possible curseword for years now. Third party clients wouldn't be able to bypass the age check either. You need an adult account to get access to the video stream data.
But if you're just venting, yeah, it's awful. But it's also kind of normal that an age check is an actual age check. If only the reasons for limiting by age were less restrictive. Keep in mind though that Youtube is strict because it makes it easy on a global scale.
It's not about protecting anyone, all age verification is censorship. They just found an excuse they can sell to the public is all...
I know why YTs have been censoring themselves, and I know that the video having "Fuck" in the title is the reason. But in the past Google would just give a warning, or simply use the age listed on your account (which yes, could be faked as I did in the past). None of that is new to me.
The issue now, is that they're actually enforcing age checks, and you can't get around them without giving up personal info to Google. I am legally an adult, but now I have to show ID or use a credit card to prove it. That's the gross shit. I guess it's mostly a vent post, since this is the first time I've literally been unable to watch a video.