YouTube age-restricts a six-year-old video featuring firearms: MrGunsNGear, a popular gun channel on multiple social platforms, posted a copy of a censorship notice received from YouTube on its X channel. The video that was censored was posted to YouTube in October of 2018, but the channel received a censorship notice in July of 2025. The video included a montage of people shooting guns at an annual shooting event. According to the screenshot, YouTube determined that the video constituted "Content featuring firearms." It continued, saying that "Content demonstrating automatic firearms and certain accessories or modifications are not appropriate for all audiences, and may be age-restricted." The notice concluded, explaining "How this impacts you," that "Viewers must be at least 18 years old to view this content." At the time of MRC's review of the video, the age-restriction had been lifted.

Age restrictions place significant limitations on YouTube videos. Documentarian and CEO of Good Kid Productions Rob Montz explained this concern in an op-ed for The Daily Wire after YouTube age-restricted one of his videos in December of 2022. “In practice, age restriction is a death knell: The video can’t be embedded on external websites; viewers have to sign in before they can watch it; and it receives scant – if any – boost from YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, which is a crucial source of views,” Montz said.