Made for kids content on YouTube: what it is and how to set it

Made for kids content on YouTube is content that has children as its main audience or that, without that being the case, is aimed at them through its characters, activities, games, songs or stories. Creators are required to say whether or not their videos are made for kids, wherever they are: YouTube ties this to the US children's privacy law (COPPA) and other applicable laws. You set it in YouTube Studio, for the whole channel or video by video, and doing so switches off features such as comments and stops personalised advertising being shown.

What counts as made for kids content

YouTube's help page on determining whether your content is “made for kids” distinguishes two cases that count as such:

• Videos in which children are the main audience.
• Videos in which children are not the main audience but which are still aimed at them because they include actors, characters, activities, games, songs, stories or other elements that show an intention to reach a child audience. This is known as mixed-audience content, and it counts as made for kids.

To decide, YouTube asks you to consider several factors:

• The subject of the video, for example whether it is educational content for preschool children.
• Whether the actual audience or target audience is children.
• Whether child actors or models appear.
• Whether it includes characters, celebrities or toys that appeal to children, including cartoons.
• Whether the language is intended to be understood by children.
• Whether it includes activities that appeal to them, such as role play, simple games or songs, or songs, stories or poems for children.
• Whether the video is advertised to children.

Meeting one of these criteria does not automatically make a video made for kids content: you need to pay close attention to the audience you are trying to reach. And up to what age is someone a child? In the United States, children are those under 13, but that age varies in other countries; YouTube asks you to take into account the obligations of the applicable laws and, if in doubt, to seek legal advice.

What does not make content made for kids

A video is not considered made for kids just because it is safe or suitable for everyone (“family-friendly”), because it shows an activity traditionally associated with children, or because children might possibly watch it.

Content for a general audience, content that could interest anyone but is not designed specifically for children, or content aimed at teenagers or an older audience, is set as “Not made for kids”. Among the examples YouTube gives, provided there is no indication that they are aimed at children: a tutorial for hobbyists who make clay figures, a family-friendly vlog about a visit to an amusement park, or animations that appeal to any audience.

Two clarifications from its FAQ:

• A notice is not enough. Including a disclaimer saying the content is for people over 13 does not mean the FTC automatically considers that it is not made for kids: it is one factor among others.
• Analytics do not decide. YouTube Analytics is not a tool designed to determine whether your content is aimed at children.

For example, a popular history channel narrated for adults, with period photographs, would fit a general audience if nothing in it is aimed at children. A series of animated stories for preschoolers, on the other hand, meets almost all the factors in the list above. In borderline cases, the decision and the responsibility are yours.

How to set it in YouTube Studio

According to YouTube's help page on setting your audience, there are two levels, and each video's settings take precedence over the channel's.

For the whole channel (only in the desktop version of Studio):

1. Sign in to studio.youtube.com and, in the left-hand menu, click Settings.
2. Click Channel and then the Advanced settings tab.
3. Under Audience, choose between setting the channel as made for kids, setting it as not made for kids, or reviewing the setting on all videos.
4. Click Save.

The channel setting applies to the videos already on the channel and to the ones you upload in future. For where each menu is, see YouTube Studio: what it is and what each section is for.

Video by video, when uploading: in YouTube Studio, click Create and then Upload videos; on the Basic info tab, scroll to Audience and choose “Yes, it's ‘Made for Kids’” or “No, it's not ‘Made for Kids’”. Once uploaded, it will appear in your uploads list as “Made for kids - set by you” if you set it that way.

On videos already uploaded: go to Content, tick the boxes of the videos you want to edit, select Edit and Audience, and then Update videos.

Changing the audience, and what happens if YouTube changes it

YouTube uses machine learning to try to identify videos clearly aimed at young audiences. It trusts that you will classify your audience correctly, but it may change the setting if it detects errors or abuse. And it warns that you should not rely entirely on its automatic definition, because it may fail to detect content that the FTC or other authorities do consider made for kids.

If you had not yet set the audience of a video and YouTube did so automatically, in most cases you can change the setting. If you had already set it and YouTube detects an error or abuse, the video appears as “Set to made for kids” and you will not be able to edit it; if you think this is a mistake, you can appeal. On a computer: in Content, hover over “Set to made for kids”, click Appeal, give the reason and submit it. You will receive an email with the final decision, and you can only appeal each video once.

According to YouTube, if you do not set your audience correctly, you may face legal problems with the FTC or other competent authorities, and YouTube may take action that affects your account.

Which features are switched off

To comply with the law, YouTube limits the collection and use of data on made for kids content, and that forces it to restrict or disable features. On each video or live stream set this way, the following are no longer available:

• Comments, the notification bell and autoplay on Home.
• Cards or end screens and watermarks on videos (how they are used on a normal video, in YouTube end screens).
• Personalised advertising.
• Channel memberships, the Donate button, Super Chat and Super Stickers, live chat and its donations, and merchandise and ticket sales.
• Playback in the miniplayer, “Save to playlist” and “Save to watch later”.
• Likes and dislikes on YouTube Music.

If you set the whole channel as made for kids, the channel will also have no channel memberships, notification bell, Posts or Ask Studio. A/B tests of titles and thumbnails are not possible on made for kids videos either (what they are, in YouTube thumbnails).

That said, videos set as made for kids are more likely to appear as recommendations alongside other children's videos. But they are not automatically included in the YouTube Kids app.

Can made for kids content be monetised?

YouTube does not show personalised ads on made for kids content, and acknowledges that this can mean a loss of revenue for some creators who set their content this way. Other sources of income disappear too, such as channel memberships, Super Chat or merchandise.

In addition, YouTube has quality principles for children's and family content that help it make decisions about monetising channels and videos. If a video breaks them, it may be shown with a limited number of ads or none, and if a channel puts particular emphasis on uploading low-quality content made for kids, its participation in the Partner Program may be suspended. Among the low-quality traits it cites are a mainly promotional purpose, pretending to be educational material, being sensationalist or misleading, and being hard to follow; of the latter it says it is usually the result of mass or automated content production. If you produce with AI, bear this in mind; more in monetising a channel made with AI.

What the Estudio de Canales does with the audience

The Estudio de Canales does not set the audience on YouTube: it does not publish on its own, so the decision is made when you upload the video in YouTube Studio. What it does do:

• A “for kids” field on each video. It is part of the publishing data, starts unticked and you can change it.
• A note in the package. That value travels in the package's metadata.json, alongside the privacy setting and the synthetic content declaration, as a reminder of what you decided.
• The audience, in the bible. Each channel's bible has a target audience field; writing it there gives you a reference for deciding consistently from one video to the next, but the studio does not carry it over to the “for kids” field: you set that yourself.

That package value is only a note: the audience that counts is the one you set under Audience when uploading the video, or your channel setting if you do not change it on the video. And if a video is aimed at children, bear that in mind from the script: without cards or an end screen, the ending cannot rely on them.

Sources consulted

Checked on 11 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.

• Determinar si a tu contenido le corresponde la clasificación "Creado para Niños". Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Configurar la audiencia de un canal o un vídeo. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Preguntas frecuentes sobre el contenido creado para niños. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Pruebas A/B de títulos y miniaturas. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Prácticas recomendadas para crear contenido infantil y familiar. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.