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.
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, 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 need help determining whether or not your content is made for kids, check out this Help Center article or consult legal counsel.
Set an art track as made for kids or not made for kids
To set art tracks as made for kids, use one of the genres listed below. Art Tracks can have multiple genres. If at least one genre on an art track is in the made for kids list below, the art track video will be marked as made for kids. To indicate that an Art Track is not made for kids, use the “Not Kids” genre. Art tracks that do not include a made for kids genre from the list below will also be marked as not made for kids. An art track should not have both “Not Kids” and a made for kids genre.
Art tracks marked as "explicit" will also be marked as not made for kids.
Not Made for Kids Genre
- Not Kids
Made for Kids Genres
Baby/Children | Hindi Children |
Bengali Children | Indian Devotional Children Song |
Children | Kid |
Children Music | Kid Friendly |
Children Song | Kid Music |
Children's | Kid Song |
Children's Classics | Kid's Music |
Children's Folk | Kid's Song |
Children's Music | Kids |
Children's Pop | Kids & Family |
Children's Rock | Kids Music |
Children's Song | Kids Song |
Children's Songwriters | Kids/Family |
Childrens | Korean Children's Music |
Childrens Music | Lullabies |
Childrens Song | Musica Per Bambini |
Children's: Family | Nursery Rhyme |
Fairy Tales | Nursery Rhymes |
Family | Portuguese Children's Music |
General Children's Music | Spanish Children's Music |
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.
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 we collect on made for kids content to comply with the law. This means we'll disable certain features like comments, notifications, and others.
Most importantly, we won’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
- 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I set my video’s audience incorrectly?
How do I know if I’ve set my video’s audience correctly?