Report inappropriate content

We rely on YouTube community members to report content that they find inappropriate. Reporting content is anonymous, so other users can't tell who made the report.

When something is reported, it's not automatically taken down. Reported content is reviewed along the following guidelines:

How to flag content

Report a video

YouTube staff review reported videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A video can be reported at any time once uploaded to YouTube; it is then reviewed by YouTube staff. If no violations are found by our review team, no amount of reporting will change that and the video will remain on our site.

  1. Go to the video that you'd like to report.
  2. Tap More  at the top of the video.
  3. Tap Report .
  4. Select the reason for reporting.

Report a thumbnail

You can report a video thumbnail that you see in your feed.

  1. Go to the thumbnail that you'd like to report.
  2. Below the thumbnail, tap More .
  3. Tap Report.
  4. Select the reason for reporting.
  5. Tap Report.
Report a comment

The 'Report spam or abuse' link allows the community to report spam comments left on videos that they upload or watch. If enough users mark a comment as spam, it becomes hidden under a 'Marked as Spam' link. By clicking 'Show link', you can see the comment again. The video's uploader has the ability to 'unmark' a comment as spam.

  1. Go to the comment that you'd like to report.
  2. Tap More  below the comment.
  3. Tap Report.
  4. Select the reason for reporting.

Use the 'Report spam or abuse' feature with extreme caution. If you misuse it, you may be prohibited from using YouTube. 

My comment has been incorrectly marked as spam

If a comment that you made has been marked as spam but you don't believe it to be, you can contact the video's uploader and ask them to reinstate your comment.

Report a live chat message

Community members can report inappropriate messages left on live streams.

  1. Go to the message that you'd like to report.
  2. Tap More below the comment.
  3. Tap Report.
  4. Select the reason for reporting.
Report a channel

You can report users, inappropriate background images or inappropriate profile avatars using the reporting flow located on the bottom of every channel.

  1. Sign in to YouTube.
  2. Go to the channel page that you want to report.
  3. Click About.
  4. Click the flag drop-down. 
  5. Select the option that best suits your issue.

Other reporting options

If the flagging process does not accurately capture your issue, we have a number of additional reporting mechanisms for you to use.

Reporting tool

Flagging is a great way to report a video that you think violates our Community Guidelines, but sometimes you may need to report more than one piece of content or may wish to submit a more detailed report for review. Using the reporting tool, you can highlight a user's comments, videos and provide additional information about your concern. If you feel that you have been targeted for abuse, this tool is your best option to report content.
Report abuse via our in-product reporting tool.

Privacy reporting

To file a privacy complaint, start the privacy complaint process. Your privacy is always respected during this process.

Legal reporting

If you need to report a legal issue on behalf of yourself or your client, you may contact us via our legal webforms. To help us investigate your claim more quickly, we encourage you to submit your claim using our webform, rather than by fax or post.
Note that abuse of our legal forms may result in the termination of your YouTube account.

Moment of death or critical injury footage

We endeavour to respect the wishes of families in regards to footage of their loved ones being critically injured. If you've identified content showing a family member during the moment of death or critical injury, and you wish to request removal of this content, please contact us using our webform.
We review each request carefully, but please note that we take public interest and newsworthiness into account when determining whether content will be removed.
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