For children and families: What are paid product placements, sponsorships and endorsements?

What's a paid product placement? (for children)

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When you're watching a video, you might notice this symbol pop up. There may also be text that says 'This channel got money or free things to make this video' or 'Includes paid promotion'. This means that whoever made the video might get money or free goods from a company.

For example, if a video has a toy in it, the video's creator might get money to show the toy to you. That toy is there because the company who made the toy wants you to buy it.

What are paid product placements, sponsorships and endorsements?

Paid product placements:

• Videos created for a company or business in exchange for money, free products or free services.
• Videos where that company or business's brand, message or product is included directly in the content. The company has given the creator money or free products to make the video.

Endorsements: Videos created for an advertiser or marketer that contain a message that reflects the opinions, beliefs or experiences of the creator or endorsing party.

Sponsorships: Videos that have been financed in whole or in part by a company, without including the brand, message or product directly in the content. Instead, the brand, message or sponsored product may be promoted during a brief video intermission. For example, a creator might film a video where they paint a picture but take a short break to promote their video sponsor's new product.

Teach your child about paid product placements, sponsorships and endorsements

It's important that children understand that creators may get goods or services in exchange for promotion in their videos. Here are some tips and tricks for teaching your child about paid promotion:

• Talk to your children about paid promotion in videos and teach them to identify the paid promotion indicator (). Watch this short video and ask your child to tell you how to identify if a video includes paid promotion.
• Discuss your child's favourite creators and explain how some of these creators support their channel through paid product placement. For many creators, making YouTube videos is their full-time job.
• Teach your child to look for phrases like 'sponsored by', 'partnered with' or '#ad'.

For more tips on how to help your child explore YouTube, please download and review our family guide.

Paid product placement, sponsorship and endorsement policies

All paid promotions must follow our ad policies, which prohibit ads in certain categories. Creators and the brands that they work with are responsible for understanding and complying with their local and legal obligations to disclose paid promotion in their content. Some of these obligations include when, how and to whom to disclose this.