Vulgar language policy

The safety of our creators, viewers, and partners is our highest priority. We look to each of you to help us protect this unique and vibrant community. It’s important you understand our Community Guidelines, and the role they play in our shared responsibility to keep YouTube safe. Take the time to carefully read the policy below. You can also check out this page for a full list of our guidelines.

Some language may not be appropriate for viewers under 18.

If you find content that violates this policy, report it. Instructions for reporting violations of our Community Guidelines are available here. If you've found a few videos or comments that you would like to report, you can report the channel.

What this policy means for you

If you're posting content

Explicit content that violates this policy could result in age restriction, content removal, or a strike. We may consider the following factors when deciding whether to age-restrict, remove content, or issue a strike.

• Use of sexually explicit language or narratives
• Use of excessive profanity in the content 
• Use of heavy profanity or sexually suggestive terms in the content’s title, thumbnail, or associated metadata
• Use of excessive sexual sounds

Note: The above list isn’t complete.

Age-restricted content

Here are some examples of content that may be age-restricted:

• A video focused on the use of profanities, like a compilation, song, or clip taken out of context
• A video that uses heavy profanities in the title 
• A video that repeatedly uses vulgar or sexual language

This policy applies to videos, video descriptions, comments, live streams, audio, and any other YouTube product or feature. Remember these are just some examples, and don't post content if you think it might violate this policy.

We may allow vulgar language when the primary purpose is educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic, and it isn’t gratuitous. For example, the title of a song with a curse word or a song that contains large amounts of profanity. Remember that giving context in the content, title, and description will help us and your viewers determine the primary purpose of the video.

What happens if content violates this policy

If your content violates this policy, we will remove the content and send you an email to let you know. If we can’t verify that a link you post is safe, we may remove the link. Note that violative URLs posted within the video itself or in the video’s metadata may result in the video being removed.

If this is your first time violating our Community Guidelines, you'll likely get a warning with no penalty to your channel. You will have the option to take a policy training to allow the warning to expire after 90 days. The 90 day period starts from when the training is completed, not when the warning is issued. However, if the same policy is violated within that 90 day window, the warning may not expire and your channel may be given a strike. If you violate a different policy after completing the training, you will get another warning.

If you get 3 strikes within 90 days, your channel may be terminated. Learn more about our strikes system.

We may terminate your channel or account for repeated violations of the Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. We may also terminate your channel or account after a single case of severe abuse, or when the channel is dedicated to a policy violation. We may prevent repeat offenders from taking policy trainings in the future. Learn more about channel or account terminations.