YouTube made for kids: what it means, what it turns off and how to set it right

YouTube made for kids is a setting every creator must answer: when you upload, you tell YouTube whether the video is directed at children. It sounds like a checkbox, but it changes how the video works. Comments switch off, ads stop being personalized and several features disappear. And the person responsible for the answer is you, not YouTube.

This guide explains the made for kids meaning in plain words, what the setting turns off, how money works on kids videos, and how it applies to Shorts. It is a practical summary, not legal advice.

What "made for kids" means

YouTube's help page on made for kids says a video counts as made for kids if children are its primary audience, or if children are not the main audience but the video is still directed at them. In the United States, kids means anyone under 13.

The rule comes from COPPA, the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. In 2019 the FTC and New York's attorney general reached a record $170 million settlement with Google and YouTube over children's data, announced on September 4, 2019. Part of the settlement required YouTube to build a way for channel owners to mark child directed content. That is the setting you see today.

YouTube is direct about who answers: "it is your legal responsibility to comply with COPPA and/or other applicable laws and designate your content accurately."

How to tell if your video is made for kids

YouTube lists the signals to weigh. A video is more likely made for kids when it has:

• a subject aimed at young children, such as preschool learning,
• children as the intended or actual audience,
• child actors or models,
• characters, celebrities or toys that appeal to children,
• language meant for children to understand,
• activities that appeal to children, like play and simple games,
• songs, stories or poems for children.

The FTC's guidance for YouTube channel owners, published November 22, 2019, lists similar factors, including animated characters and the kind of music used.

One factor alone does not decide it. An animated video about the history of Rome is not made for kids just because it is animated. A nursery rhyme with bright cartoon animals for toddlers clearly is.

What made for kids turns off

YouTube's page on watching made for kids content lists the features that are not available on made for kids videos. The ones creators notice most:

If your whole channel is set as made for kids, channel memberships, notifications, posts and comments are off for the channel too.

Can made for kids videos make money?

Yes, with fewer ad options. YouTube's ads page for made for kids content says contextual ads, based on the video being watched and general location, can run. Personalized ads, remarketing and other personalized targeting are not allowed.

Quality matters as much as the setting. YouTube's quality principles for kids and family content ask for content that is age appropriate, enriching and engaging. Videos that are heavily promotional, encourage bad behaviour, are "deceptively educational", hard to follow, or sensational may get limited or no ads. A channel with a strong focus on low quality made for kids content can be suspended from the Partner Program. The page says these principles "apply to both long-form content and YouTube Shorts".

Made for kids and Shorts

The made for kids setting is part of every upload, including Shorts. Set it on each Short the same way you would on a long video, or set a default for the whole channel in YouTube Studio and adjust single videos when needed.

For faceless creators, the format decides the answer:

• Nursery rhymes, counting songs and toddler stories are made for kids. Mark them that way.
• General facts, history, animals and space Shorts are usually not, even if kids enjoy them, unless you aim them at young children with child focused language and characters.
• Scary stories, true crime and Reddit drama are not for children at all.

Mixing these on one channel makes the setting harder to get right and confuses viewers. If you want to make kids content, give it its own channel.

What happens if you set it wrong

YouTube's page warns that a wrong answer "may result in consequences on YouTube or have legal consequences under COPPA and other laws". The same page tells you not to rely on YouTube's systems to set the audience for you.

The FTC has acted on this. On September 2, 2025, it announced a $10 million civil penalty against Disney over YouTube videos that were not labelled made for kids. The complaint said the videos were set at the channel level, so they defaulted to not made for kids. In 2019 the FTC also noted that COPPA allows civil penalties of up to $42,530 per violation, a figure it adjusts over time.

The lesson for small creators is simple: answer honestly, video by video, and do not leave a channel default that does not fit every upload.

Starting a kids YouTube channel

If you want to build a channel for young children:

1. Make it a separate channel that is only for kids.
2. Set the channel and every video as made for kids.
3. Follow the quality principles: gentle, clear, enriching. No clickbait titles, no strange uses of popular children's characters.
4. Use original or public domain material. Classic nursery rhymes are public domain; branded characters are not yours to use.
5. Plan for no comments and contextual ads. Your growth comes from the feed and from parents, not from community features.

The YouTube Partner Program requirements still apply to kids channels, and our guide to starting a faceless channel covers the rest of the setup.

Kids videos with FacelessHype

The kids rhymes format makes animated nursery rhymes and sing along songs with gentle voices and simple words, either classic public domain rhymes or new ones. Scripts are gentle, with no scary scenes, but you should still watch every video before you post it, and mark it as made for kids when you upload it to YouTube yourself. See other formats on the formats page.

Quick answers

What does made for kids mean on YouTube? The video is directed at children under 13, as their main audience or as part of it.

Can I turn off made for kids to get comments? Only if the video really is not for children. The setting must match the audience, not the features you want.

Do made for kids videos earn money? Yes, through contextual ads. Personalized ads are not allowed on them.

Do I have to mark Shorts as made for kids? Yes. The setting applies to every upload, including Shorts.

Is an animated video automatically made for kids? No. Animation is one signal. The subject, language and intended audience matter more.