YouTubes Community Guidelines YouTube Help

When you use YouTube, you join a community of people from all over the world. The guidelines below help keep YouTube fun and enjoyable for everyone.

If you see content that you think violates these guidelines, report it.

Sometimes, content that would otherwise violate our Community Guidelines may stay on YouTube when it has Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic (EDSA) context, including content that is in the public’s interest. In these cases, the content gets an EDSA exception.

These policies apply to all types of content on our platform, including, for example, unlisted and private content, comments, links, posts, and thumbnails. This list isn’t complete.

Creating with Common Sense: YouTube Community Guidelines

Spam & deceptive practices

The YouTube Community is one that's built on trust. Content that intends to scam, mislead, spam, or defraud other users isn't allowed on YouTube.

Sensitive content

We hope to protect viewers, creators, and especially minors. That's why we've got rules around keeping children safe, sex & nudity, and self harm. Learn what's allowed on YouTube and what to do if you see content that doesn't follow these policies.

Violent or dangerous content

Hate speech, predatory behavior, graphic violence, malicious attacks, and content that promotes harmful or dangerous behavior isn't allowed on YouTube.

Regulated goods

Certain goods can't be sold on YouTube. Find out what's allowed and what isn't.

Misinformation

Certain types of misleading or deceptive content with serious risk of egregious harm are not allowed on YouTube. This includes certain types of misinformation that can cause real-world harm, like promoting harmful remedies or treatments, certain types of technically manipulated content, or content interfering with democratic processes.

Educational, Documentary, Scientific, and Artistic (EDSA) content

Our Community Guidelines aim to make YouTube a safer community. Sometimes, content that would otherwise violate our Community Guidelines may stay on YouTube when it has Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic (EDSA) context. We may also make exceptions for content that is in the public’s interest, such as congressional or parliamentary proceedings, campaign speeches, or debates over ongoing government actions. In these cases, the content gets an EDSA exception. This is not a pass to violate our Community Guidelines.

Please take these rules seriously. If a YouTube creator’s on- and/or off-platform behavior harms our users, community, employees or ecosystem, we may respond based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the egregiousness of their actions and whether a pattern of harmful behavior exists. Our response will range from suspending a creator’s privileges to account termination.