Set your channel or video’s audience

Regardless of your location, you’re legally required to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and/or other laws. You’re required to tell us that your videos are made for kids if you make kids content.

As a YouTube creator, you are required to set future and existing videos as made for kids or not. Even creators who don’t make content for kids need to set their audience. This will help ensure that we offer the appropriate features on your content.

Important Update for All Creators: Complying with COPPA

To help you comply, there are made for kids audience settings on YouTube Studio. You can set your audience:

  • At the channel level, which will set all of your future and existing content as made for kids or not.
  • Or, at the video level. If you choose this option, you’ll need to set each existing and future video as made for kids or not.

Note:

  • We'll make the audience selection tool available to third-party applications and the YouTube API Services in the near future. For now, please use YouTube Studio to upload made for kids content.

Important: Why every creator must set their audience

These changes are required as part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and NY Attorney General, and will help you comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws. Regardless of your location, we require you to tell us whether or not your videos are made for kids. If you fail to set your audience accurately, you may face compliance issues with the FTC or other authorities, and we may take action on your YouTube account. Learn more about the FTC’s enforcement of COPPA.

A few notes:
  • We use machine learning to help us identify videos that are clearly directed to young audiences. We trust you to set your audience accurately, but we may override your audience setting choice in cases of error or abuse.
  • Do not rely on our systems to set your audience for you because our systems may not identify content that the FTC or other authorities consider to be made for kids.
  • If you need help determining whether or not your content is made for kids, check out this Help Center article or consult legal counsel.
  • Videos that you set as “made for kids” are more likely to be recommended alongside other kids’ videos.
  • If you've already set your audience for your video and YouTube detects error or abuse, you may see your video set as “Set to Made for Kids". You won't be able to change your audience setting. If you think we made a mistake, you can appeal.

Set your video's audience

You can set individual videos as made for kids. Use this option if only some of your videos are made for kids. If you aren’t sure whether or not your content is made for kids, check out this Help Center article.

Update the audience setting on existing videos

You may notice that YouTube has already set some videos as “made for kids”. Since you haven’t had a chance yet to set your videos as made for kids or not, you’ll be able to do this now:

YouTube Studio app for Android

  1. Open the YouTube Studio app .
  2. From the bottom Menu, tap Content .
  3. Select the video you want to edit.
  4. Tap Edit .
  5. Tap Audience. Select Yes, it’s made for kids or No, it’s not made for kids to choose your audience. If you aren’t sure, check out this Help Center article.
  6. Tap SAVE.

YouTube Android app

  1. Open the YouTube app .
  2. Tap your profile picture .
  3. At the bottom, tap Your videos.
  4. Next to the video you'd like to edit, tap More ''and then Edit.
  5. Tap Audience. Select Yes, it’s made for kids or No, it’s not made for kids to choose your audience. If you aren’t sure, check out this Help Center article.
  6. Tap SAVE.

Set your live stream's audience

Set your audience when creating a live stream

If you aren’t sure whether or not your content is made for kids, check out this Help Center article.

YouTube Android app

  1. Set up your live stream.
  2. Tap Audience. Select Yes, it’s made for kids or No, it’s not made for kids to choose your audience.
  3. Tap Next to continue setting up your live stream.

Update the audience setting on archived live streams

When checking your archived live streams, you may notice that YouTube has already set some videos as “made for kids”. Since you haven’t had a chance yet to set your archived live streams as made for kids or not, you’ll be able to do this now:

YouTube Studio app for Android

  1. Open the YouTube Studio app .
  2. From the bottom Menu, tap Content .
  3. Select the video you want to edit.
  4. Tap Edit .
  5. Tap Audience. Select Yes, it’s made for kids or No, it’s not made for kids to choose your audience.
  6. Tap SAVE.
A few notes
  • We use machine learning to help us identify videos that are clearly directed to young audiences. We trust you to set your audience accurately, but we may override your audience setting choice in cases of error or abuse. 
  • Do not rely on our systems to set your audience for you because our systems may not identify content that the FTC or other authorities consider to be made for kids. 
  • If you need help determining whether or not your content is made for kids, check out this Help Center article or consult legal counsel.
  • Videos that you set as “made for kids” by you are more likely to be recommended alongside other kids’ videos.
  • If you've already set your audience for your video and YouTube detects error or abuse, you may see your video set as “Set to Made for Kids". You won't be able to change your audience settings. If you think we made a mistake, you can appeal.

What happens when your content is set as made for kids

We limit data collection and use on made for kids content to comply with the law. This means we need to restrict or disable certain features like comments, notifications, and others.

Most importantly, we don’t serve personalized ads on kids content, as required by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws. Not serving personalized ads on kids content may result in a decrease in revenue for some creators who mark their content as made for kids. We recognize that this won’t be easy for some creators, but these are important steps to take to ensure compliance with COPPA and other applicable laws.

Read below for a list of affected features:

If you set a video or live stream as made for kids

When you set your audience as “made for kids”, we'll restrict certain features to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and other applicable laws. When this happens, the following features won’t be available on individual videos or live streams:

  • Autoplay on home
  • Cards or end screens
  • Video watermarks
  • Channel Memberships
  • Comments
  • Donate button
  • Likes and dislikes on YouTube Music
  • Live chat or live chat donations
  • Merchandise and ticketing
  • Notification bell
  • Personalized advertising
  • Playback in the Miniplayer
  • Super Chat or Super Stickers
  • Save to playlist and Save to watch later
If you set your channel as made for kids

If your channel is made for kids, your videos or live streams won’t have any of the features above. Your channel also won’t have the following: 

  • Channel Memberships
  • Notification bell
  • Posts
  • Stories

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are notifications, comments, and other features turned off on content set as made for kids?

To comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and other applicable laws, we limit data collection on content designated as made for kids. As a result, certain features may be restricted or turned off on this content, including notifications and comments.

What happens if I set my video’s audience incorrectly?

These changes are required as part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and NY Attorney General, and will help you comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws. Regardless of your location, we require you to tell us whether or not your videos are made for kids. If you fail to set your audience accurately, you may face compliance issues with the FTC or other authorities, and we may take action on your YouTube account. Learn more about the FTC’s enforcement of COPPA.

Note: We’ll also use machine learning to help us identify videos that are clearly directed to young audiences. We trust you to set your audience accurately, but we may override your audience setting choice in cases of error or abuse. However, do not rely on our systems to set your audience for you because our systems may not identify content that the FTC or other authorities consider to be made for kids. If you don’t set your audience as made for kids accurately, you might face legal consequences or consequences on YouTube. If you need help determining whether or not your content is made for kids, check out this Help Center article or consult legal counsel.

How do I know if I’ve set my video’s audience correctly?

Unfortunately, we’re unable to provide guidance on whether you accurately set your audience as made for kids, but the FTC has provided some guidance on what it means to be child-directed (or, “made for kids”). The FTC is currently considering various updates to COPPA, which may include providing more guidance on this issue.

We’ll also use machine learning systems to help us find content that is clearly made for kids. But please do not rely on our systems to set content for you -- like all automated systems, it’s not perfect. We may need to override your audience setting choice in cases where we detect error or abuse. But in most cases, we’ll rely on your audience setting to determine whether a video is made for kids.

If you don’t set your audience as made for kids, and the FTC or other authorities think it should have been, you may face legal consequences. So check out this Help Center article or seek legal counsel if you’re still unsure whether or not your content should be set as made for kids.

What do I do if YouTube says my video is made for kids, but I disagree?

If you haven’t set your video’s audience yet: YouTube may have set your audience for you. This is to help you comply with COPPA and/or other applicable laws. However, if you disagree with how YouTube has set your content, you can still change the video’s audience setting in most cases.

If you've already set your audience for your video: and YouTube detects error or abuse, you may see your video set as “Set to made for Kids.” When this happens, you won’t be able to change your audience setting.

However, we understand that we sometimes make mistakes. If you think this is the case, you can appeal this decision.

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