YouTube are shutting down comments on videos featuring under-18s, in an attempt to "better protect children and families". Obviously this is going to have serious implications for a lot of video creators. We've just 

done a video on the child exploitation scandal

 that is ripping through YouTube right now, and making advertisers very jumpy. With the eyes of the world looking to YouTube to aggressively address the issue, they have confirmed they are taking drastic steps to protect children who appear in videos uploaded to one of the biggest social platforms in the world.

Over a week after the child exploitation story broke, YouTube have 

finally posted an update on their creator blog page

. In it they summarize what they have done so far but also more importantly what they intend to do next. And this is where things start to look a little uncomfortable for video creators.

YouTube states that over the past week they have disabled comments on tens of millions of videos that could have been subject to predatory behavior. These efforts are focused on videos featuring 'young' and 'older' minors and the platform will continue to identify videos at risk over the next few months.

YouTube also confirmed that the platform has been working on creating a much more effective ‘classifer’ that will identify and automatically remove comments that are considered predatory, creepy or harmful. As part of its general safety policy, they are proactively removing content and terminating channels that attempt to harm or endanger children.

YouTube also confirmed that a small number of family and children-friendly creators 

 be able to keep comments enabled on these types of videos. However, these select channels will be required to actively moderate their comments beyond just using the standard moderation tools, and the comments must demonstrate a low risk of predatory behavior.

When YouTube states a small number of creators, we can assume that it's probably the largest creators on the platform, the ones that bring in tens of millions of views. And those creators are going to have to prove that their comments are safe. But how does that work in the practical world?

YouTube's New Comment Policy: How Will it Work in the Wild?

The new policy confirms that comments are going to be banned from tens of millions of videos, and millions of video creator channels. These creators are no longer going to be able to interact directly with their audience and that changes the whole dynamic of how you build an engaged audience and a community on YouTube.

For the select few channels who will be able to keep comments enabled, how will they work with YouTube and how much manual hands-on work will be required by those channels and the teams at YouTube? If we’re talking about some of the biggest kid-friendly properties, each video uploaded can bring in 10K+ comments, and moderating that kind of volume will require a 

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Child surprised with hands over mouth next to a no comments symbol on blue background

YouTube have just announced that they're going to ban comments on most videos featuring children. What does that mean for family vloggers?

YouTube Bans Comments on Videos Featuring Kids: What That Means for Family Channels

 which cover a multitude of sins video creators might break be it nudity, harmful, hateful, violent content, harassment and bullying, or spam. Creators can quickly find themselves in trouble if they cross the line on any of these topics.

There are many different Community Guidelines and also a number of places where creators can break them such as:

In the past, the punishment from YouTube differed depending on where the crime was committed. It might be that you lose livestream privileges or that you couldn't post videos for a certain length of time. The rules were somewhat chaotic, so YouTube have cleared up the confusion for creators and made it crystal clear what violates a Community Guideline (

 we’re covering Community Guidelines in the post and not copyright strikes which is a whole different topic and one we’ll be covering soon).

YouTube Community Guidelines February 2019

As of February 19th 2019, the new Community Guidelines are in place for all creators on the platform. YouTube are keen not to punish first time offenders who may not be up to speed with the rules, and as a result, all channels will receive a one-time warning the first time they post content that crosses the line with no penalties to their channel except for the removal of that content. The good news is that this one time warning applies to all channels so even if you do have an existing strike you still get this warning before further penalties. It doesn't matter where you break the Community Guideline whether it be on a thumbnail, video content, playlists, or via the comments - the penalty is always going to be the same.

 The second time you break Community Guidelines will be considered your first official strike. That will result in your content being removed as before. On top of this all your YouTube content posting privileges will be frozen for one week. This includes videos, live-streams, YouTube stories, and community posts. However, you’ll still be able to post comments. After a week you will get all of the posting features back but the strike remains on your account for 90 days in total.

 If you commit another Community Guideline violation within a 90 day period this is your second strike with the same penalties applied except that instead of a one week ban you get a two week ban on publishing content.

 If you fall foul of the Community Guidelines for a third time, YouTube isn’t here to play. Your channel will be terminated!

Obviously the termination of your channel is pretty drastic so YouTube have now promised to be more transparent about the guideline you violated so it doesn’t get to that stage. They will be more specific with information about that violation, communicate it to you through notifications and emails and via the Creative Studio. There will also be an appeals process in place as before.

We applaud all of the changes that YouTube are making here. I think that the first time warning is a fantastic idea because many video creators get terrified over making any strike at any point in their YouTube journey. I think a consistent penalty system makes it very clear to the user. It also eliminates the extremely harsh 90 day livestream penalty there used to be.

In effect, creators are getting an extra strike out of the new rules but you shouldn’t take advantage of that. After your first warning you shouldn't be making any further strikes on your YouTube channel.

YouTube new rules announcement with surprised man pointing to red X icon thumbnail

YouTube have just made some sweeping changes to their Community Guidelines which affect every creator. Find out how you can stay on the right side of the new rules.

Posts tagged with “YouTube Guidelines”

YouTube Bans Comments on Videos Featuring Kids: What That Means for Family Ch...

New Community Guidelines From YouTube: What Creators Need to Know Right Now