Harmful or dangerous content policy

YouTube doesn’t allow content that encourages dangerous or illegal activities that risk serious physical harm or death.
 
If you find content that violates this policy, report it.

 

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Important: This policy applies to videos, video descriptions, comments, live streams, and any other YouTube product or feature. These policies also apply to external links in your content. This can include clickable URLs, verbally directing users to other sites in video, as well as other forms.

Harmful or dangerous content policy

What this policy means for you

Note: The list below isn't complete. If you think that your content might violate this policy, don't post it.
This content isn't allowed on YouTube:

Harmful or dangerous acts, challenges, and pranks

  • Extremely dangerous challenges: Challenges that pose an imminent risk of physical injury.
  • Dangerous or threatening pranks: Pranks that lead victims to fear imminent serious physical danger, or that create serious emotional distress in minors.
  • Harmful or dangerous acts: Acts performed by adults that have a risk of serious harm or death.
  • Minors participating in dangerous activities: Content that endangers the emotional and physical well-being of minors. For more info, review our Child safety policy.

Weapons content

  • Instructions to kill or harm: Instructions that show or tell viewers how to perform activities that are meant to kill or severely harm others.
  • Explosives: Giving instructions to make explosive devices or compounds meant to injure or kill others.
  • Firearms: For more info, review our Firearms policy.

Digital security content

  • Instructional theft: Instructional theft videos posted with the express intent to steal physical goods or get something for free.
  • Hacking: Demonstrating how to use computers or information technology with the intent to steal credentials, compromise personal data, or cause serious harm to others.
  • Bypassing payment for digital content or services: Content that shows viewers how to get unauthorized access to content, software, or services that usually require payment.
  • Phishing: Content that tries to get or gives instructions for how to get nonpublic personal identifying information from viewers by deceiving them.
    • Cryptophishing: Requests for cryptocurrency or cryptocurrency-related wallet details as a part of a phishing scheme.

Learn more about our spam, deceptive practices, and scams policies.

Illegal or regulated goods or services

Examples of harmful or dangerous content

Here are some examples of harmful or dangerous content that isn’t allowed on YouTube.

Note: The list below isn't complete.

Age-restricted content

Note: The list below isn't complete.
Sometimes content doesn't violate our policies, but it may not be appropriate for viewers under 18.
We may restrict rather than remove if content showing a dangerous act meets one or more of the following criteria:
  • There is educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic context, such as providing information about the risks of the act. For example, this could include context explaining the types of injuries that can happen as a result of doing the dangerous act, or describing your own experience being injured as a result of the dangerous act. It could also include context explaining the types of precautions or training required to do the act safely and prevent injury. Saying, “Don’t try this at home” is not sufficient context.
  • The act shown does not risk serious injury.
  • The content does not promote the act shown. Promotion includes any form of encouragement or praise of the act, or providing instructions on how to complete the act.

Learn about age-restricted content and how to watch age-restricted videos.

Educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic content

Sometimes, content that would otherwise violate this policy is allowed to stay on YouTube when it has Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic (EDSA) context. Learn about how YouTube evaluates EDSA content.

Note: In some cases, EDSA content may be age-restricted. Certain content isn’t allowed on YouTube even if it has EDSA context added, such as content that sells drugs or regulated pharmaceuticals without a prescription.

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.

Familiarize yourself with the rest of our Community Guidelines.

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