Setting your YouTube audience to “made for kids”: the criteria, the features you lose, and how to change it (October 2026)

The requirement comes from YouTube’s settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New York Attorney General. Even creators who don’t make kids content must set their audience so YouTube can offer the right features. Failing to set it correctly can lead to legal consequences under COPPA and other laws, or to action from YouTube on your account.

YouTube uses machine learning to find videos clearly directed at kids and may change the audience you chose if it detects error or abuse. But its systems may miss content the FTC or others consider made for kids, so YouTube says not to rely on them. In the US, “children” means under 13; other countries may define it differently.

These are the factors YouTube lists, based on FTC guidance. “Mixed audience” content — which targets children as one of its audiences, though not the primary one — is also a type of made-for-kids content.

• Subject matter (for example, educational content for preschoolers)
• Whether children are the intended audience (as shown in metadata) or the actual audience
• Whether the video includes child actors or models
• Characters, celebrities or toys that appeal to children, including animated characters and cartoon figures
• Language meant to be understood by children
• Activities that appeal to children, such as play-acting, simple songs or games, or early education
• Songs, stories or poems for children
• Whether the content’s ads are directed at children

“General audience” content may appeal to all ages but isn’t specifically directed at kids, or is aimed at teens and older; set it as not made for kids. Being family-friendly, covering an activity associated with children, or being something kids might stumble on doesn’t by itself make content made for kids.

To comply with the law, YouTube limits data collection and use on made-for-kids content. When a video or live stream is set as made for kids, these features aren’t available:

• Comments and the notification bell
• Personalized advertising
• Channel memberships, Super Chat and Super Stickers, live chat and live chat donations, the Donate button
• Cards and end screens, video watermarks, merchandise and ticketing
• Autoplay on home, playback in the Miniplayer, Save to playlist and Save to Watch later
• Likes and dislikes on YouTube Music

• Videos where Super Thanks and memberships don’t appear

A channel-level setting applies to existing and future videos at once, and a video-level setting overrides it. The channel setting is only available in YouTube Studio on the web.

1. Sign in to studio.youtube.com and click Settings in the left menu.
2. Click Channel, then the Advanced settings tab.
3. Under Audience, choose “Yes, set this channel as made for kids,” “No, set this channel as not made for kids,” or “I want to review this setting for every video.”
4. Click Save.

• While uploading: Create → Upload videos → in the Details tab, scroll to Audience and choose “Yes, it’s made for kids” or “No, it’s not made for kids”
• Existing videos: in Content, tick the videos → Edit → Audience → choose, then Update videos (works in bulk)
• Live streams: in Live Control Room, fill in the basics and visibility, then choose under Audience

If you never set an audience, YouTube may have set it for you; in most cases you can change it yourself. If you did set it and YouTube detected error or abuse, the video may show “Set to made for kids” and you won’t be able to change the setting.

If you think that’s a mistake, appeal. On a computer, go to Content in Studio, hover over “Set to made for kids” on the video and click Appeal, then give your reason. In the Studio mobile app, open the video from the Uploads tab and tap “Set to made for kids” under Restrictions. You can appeal each video once; if it’s accepted, the made-for-kids setting is removed, and you’ll get the result by email.

Videos you post to YouTube through Shortsmith’s Upload & schedule are uploaded as not made for kids, and the window has no audience setting. Shortsmith turns long videos — games, shows, vlogs — into commentary Shorts, so most of what it makes is general audience. A Short aimed mainly at kids is a different story.

For those, upload directly in YouTube Studio, or post through Shortsmith and immediately switch the audience to “Yes, it’s made for kids” under Content in Studio. To give yourself time to fix it before anyone sees it, set the visibility to Private in Shortsmith’s upload window, change the audience in Studio, then make it public.

• When to post and schedule Shorts
• How to upload YouTube Shorts