Made for Kids

Every YouTube creator must say whether each video is made for kids, children under 13 in the US, in YouTube Studio under Settings > Channel > Advanced settings or per video. Made for kids videos lose comments, personalized ads, the notification bell, end screens and more, a rule that came from YouTube's $170 million COPPA settlement with the FTC in 2019.

To set the audience on YouTube, open YouTube Studio, go to Settings > Channel > Advanced settings and under Audience choose made for kids, not made for kids, or review each video individually; a single video's audience is set on the Details page under Audience when uploading or editing it. A video is made for kids when children are its main audience, and in the United States a kid is anyone under 13. Getting it right matters twice over: made for kids videos lose comments, personalized ads and a long list of other features, and setting the audience wrongly can bring consequences on YouTube and legal ones under COPPA, the US children's privacy law behind the whole system.

Quick facts

Who decides	The creator, for every channel and video
Kid, in the US	Under 13; other countries may differ
Channel setting	Studio > Settings > Channel > Advanced settings > Audience
Video setting	Details > Audience, or Content > Edit > Audience in bulk
Main cost	No personalized ads, comments, notification bell, end screens or Miniplayer
Law	COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
Origin	$170 million FTC and New York settlement, Sep 4, 2019

How do I set my YouTube channel or video as made for kids?

For the whole channel:

Sign in to YouTube Studio and click Settings.
Click Channel, then Advanced settings.
Under Audience, pick Yes, set this channel as made for kids, No, set this channel as not made for kids, or the option to review each video.
Click SAVE.

For a video, choose Yes, it's made for kids or No, it's not made for kids under Audience on the Details step of the upload, or select videos on the Content page and choose Edit > Audience to change many at once (Help). YouTube's machine learning may also flag a video as made for kids; the creator can change that, and YouTube says it overrides a creator's choice only for abuse or error. Help still warns creators not to rely on its systems to decide for them.

What turns off on made for kids videos

Turned off on made for kids videos and live streams
Autoplay on home
Cards and end screens
Video watermarks
Channel Memberships
Comments
Donate button
Likes and dislikes on YouTube Music
Live chat and live chat donations
Merchandise and ticketing
Notification bell
Personalized advertising
Playback in the Miniplayer
Super Chat and Super Stickers
Save to playlist and Save to watch later

Source: Features unavailable on made for kids content, YouTube Help, read Nov 6, 2026. A channel set as made for kids also loses Posts and Ask Studio. Made for kids videos can still show ads, just not personalized ones, and they are more likely to be recommended beside other kids' videos.

2:05 YouTube's own tutorials repeat the rule where creators meet it. Its end screen video says end screens, which need a video at least 25 seconds long, are not available on videos set as made for kids.

2:33 Its A/B testing video adds that Test and Compare does not work on made for kids videos either, nor on videos for mature audiences or live streams (Thumbnail Test and Compare).

What makes a video made for kids?

YouTube's list follows the FTC's factors: the subject (such as preschool lessons), who the video is aimed at and who actually watches, child actors or models, characters, celebrities or toys that appeal to children (cartoons among them), language meant for children, play-acting, simple songs or games, children's songs, stories or poems, and whether the video is advertised to children. One factor alone does not make a video made for kids. A family vlog made for parents, or a video game played for an adult audience, is usually not; nursery rhymes and toy play aimed at small children are.

COPPA and the 2019 FTC settlement

On Sep 4, 2019, Google and YouTube agreed to pay a record $170 million, $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York, over claims that YouTube collected cookies from viewers of child-directed channels without parents' consent and used them for targeted ads. The settlement required YouTube to build a way for channel owners to mark child-directed content. YouTube's CEO announced the same day that, in about four months, data from anyone watching children's content would be treated as a child's, with personalized ads, comments and notifications switched off on it, and that creators would have to flag such content. The audience setting appeared in Studio in November 2019, and the restrictions began rolling out worldwide on Jan 6, 2020. Because COPPA can hold the channel itself responsible, a creator who marks kids' content as not made for kids risks more than a YouTube penalty.

Quality principles for kids and family content

Since the setting split kids' content off, YouTube also judges it by quality principles. High-quality made for kids videos, ones that encourage learning, creativity, healthy habits and positive role models, are raised in recommendations and are more likely to appear in YouTube Kids. Low-quality ones are those that are mainly about products or push buying, encourage dangerous acts, bullying or dishonesty, pretend to be educational, are hard to follow, are sensational or stuffed with keywords, or put well-known children's characters in inappropriate situations. A channel focused on low-quality made for kids content may be suspended from the YouTube Partner Program, and a single video can get limited or no ads. George Vanous, who runs the Freedom! network, recorded a kids channel suspended on Apr 1, 2026 for "heavily commercial or promotional content", and creators reported suspensions for "misleading family content" in 2026 (YPP Suspension Appeals).

What creators say

4:08 In "Official YouTube monetization policies clarified!", made after YouTube rewrote its monetization examples in January 2020, George Vanous of Freedom! picked out the rule that hit kids' channels hardest: mindless, repetitive videos with little educational value, his example being the same colored balls repeated over and over, are not monetizable, and he said many kids channels had been demonetized for it. He added that the rule is not only for kids' content: anything that looks mass-produced is caught.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I mark my YouTube video as made for kids? Comments, personalized ads, the notification bell, cards and end screens, the Miniplayer, Save to playlist, Super Chat and several other features turn off on it. It can still show ads that are not personalized.

What age counts as a kid on YouTube? In the United States, anyone under 13, following COPPA. Other countries may set a different age.

Can YouTube change my made for kids setting? Yes, in limited cases. YouTube's machine learning may mark a video as made for kids, and YouTube says it overrides a creator's choice only when it detects abuse or error; creators remain responsible for setting it correctly.

Do made for kids videos make money on YouTube? Yes, from ads that are not personalized, but without Super Chat, Channel Memberships or merchandise.

What was the YouTube COPPA settlement? In September 2019 Google and YouTube paid $170 million to the FTC and New York over collecting children's data without parental consent, which led to the made for kids setting, enforced from Jan 6, 2020.

Is gaming content made for kids on YouTube? Not automatically. It depends on who it is aimed at: gameplay made for an older audience is not made for kids, even when children also watch.