Uploading a video as Made for Kids using CSV templates

Regardless of your location, you're legally required to comply with the US 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 children's content.

These features are only available to partners using YouTube's Content Manager to manage their copyrighted 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 children need to set their audience. This will help ensure that we offer the appropriate features on your content.

To help you comply, we are introducing a new audience setting 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.

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. They will help you to comply with the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws. Regardless of your location, we require you to tell us whether 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 creators to set their content accurately, but we may override your audience setting choice in cases of error or abuse. However, do not rely on our systems to set content for you. Our systems may not identify content that the FTC or other authorities consider to be Made for Kids. If you need help determining whether your content is Made for Kids, take a look at this Help Centre article or consult legal counsel.

Uploading a video as Made for Kids using CSV templates

Templates that update and upload videos have a new field that allows users to mark a video as Made for Kids or not Made for Kids. The field is either optional or required, depending on the channel default that you've chosen for the channel that the video will be uploaded to.

Optional Made for Kids flag

The Made for Kids flag is optional if the channel default for the channel that you are uploading your video to is set to either:

'Yes, set this channel as Made for Kids. I always upload content that's Made for Kids'.
'No, set this channel as not Made for Kids. I never upload content that's Made for Kids'.

Note: We'll also use machine learning to help us identify videos that are clearly directed at young audiences. We trust creators to set their content accurately, but we may override your audience setting choice in cases of error or abuse. However, do not rely on our systems to set content for you. Our systems may not identify content that the FTC or other authorities consider to be Made for Kids. If you don't set your content as Made for Kids accurately, you might face legal consequences or consequences on YouTube. If you need help determining whether your content is Made for Kids, take a look at this Help Centre article or seek legal counsel.

If you've already set your audience for your video and YouTube detects error or abuse, you will see your video marked as 'Made for Kids - Set by YouTube'. You won't be able to change your audience setting. If you disagree, you can use the 'Send Feedback' button.

Required Made for Kids flag

The Made for Kids flag is required if the channel default for the channel that you are uploading your video to is set to:

'I want to review this setting for every video'.

What happens when your content is set as Made for Kids

When your content is set as 'Made for Kids', we will limit the data that we collect on Made for Kids content to comply with the law. This means that we'll disable certain features like comments, notifications and others.

Most importantly, we won't serve personalised ads on content that is made for children, as required by the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws. Not serving personalised ads on content that is made for children may result in a decrease in revenue for some creators who mark their content as 'Made for Kids'. We recognise 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 US 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:

Personal advertising
Comments
Channel branding watermark
Donate button
Cards or end screens
Live chat or live chat donations
Notification bell
Playback in the Miniplayer
Super Chat or Super Stickers
Save to playlist

Note: The channel memberships 'join' button and the merch shelf won't be available on content set as Made for Kids.

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:

Stories
Community tab on the channel page
Notification bell
Channel memberships

Your viewers also won't be able to 'Save to Watch Later' or 'Save to playlist'.

Frequently Asked Questions

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 US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws. Regardless of your location, we require you to tell us whether your videos are Made for Kids. If you fail to set your content 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 Creators to set their content accurately, but we may override your audience setting choice in cases of error or abuse. However, do not rely on our systems to set content for you. Our systems may not identify content that the FTC or other authorities consider to be Made for Kids. If you need help determining whether your content is Made for Kids, take a look at this Help Centre 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've accurately set your content 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 content as Made for Kids, and the FTC or other authorities think that it should have been, you may face legal consequences. So, take a look at this Help Centre article or seek legal counsel if you're still unsure whether 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. If you disagree with how YouTube has designated your content, however, you can still change the video's audience setting in most cases. Here's how:

Go to studio.youtube.com.
From the left menu, select Content.
Go to the video that you'd like to edit and click the thumbnail.
Under 'Audience', select 'No, it's not Made for Kids'.

If you've already set your audience for your video and YouTube detects error or abuse, you will see your video marked as 'Made for Kids – set by YouTube'. You won't be able to change your audience setting. If you disagree, you can use the 'Send feedback' button.

On a computer, go to studio.youtube.com.
From the left menu, select Content.
Click on the video that you would like to send feedback on.
Click Send feedback.

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