We want to ensure creators and viewers have the tools and information they need
to feel safe while on YouTube.
And though the majority of YouTube's creators and viewers
use YouTube to share, learn, and connect, we know there are instances of harassment
and even sometimes displays of hate, that are difficult for users and creators
to see and experience.
In this video, we'll walk you through some of the policies, tools, and features in place
to help you feel safe on YouTube.
To start, let's talk a bit about YouTube's specific policies
that help protect against hate and harassment.
First, our hate speech policy.
Content is considered hate speech when it promotes hatred or violence
against groups of people based on protected attributes
such as age, gender, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or caste.
Hate speech is not allowed on YouTube, and we remove content promoting violence
or hatred against individuals or groups based on any of these attributes.
Next, our harassment policy.
We consider content harassment when it targets an individual
with prolonged or malicious insults based on intrinsic attributes
such as their membership to a protected group
status as a survivor of sexual assault, or physical traits.
This also includes harmful behavior such as threats, blackmail, bullying
publishing someone's private or identifying information
or encouraging abusive fan behavior against a specific individual
which you may know as brigading.
Content used to harass others is not allowed on YouTube.
Now that you know about our policies
let's dive into some of the tools available to protect you.
We'll walk through two options.
First, you can report things that violate our policies.
And second, you can moderate comments on your own channel
even if they don't necessarily violate our policies.
Let's first dive into how you can report inappropriate or abusive content
that violates our policies.
To report a video, click the 3-dot menu on desktop or mobile and select Report.
You'll be prompted to select the reason that best fits the violation in the video
and you can provide any additional details that may help the review team
make their decision, including timestamps or descriptions of the violation.
You can also report comments, thumbnails, and playlists with the same process.
Just always look out for the 3-dot menu and select Report.
Note that reporting content for hate and harassment violations is anonymous
so other users won't be able to tell who made the report.
If you want to report an entire channel due to impersonation or inappropriate use
of their channel banner or profile picture, go to the channel page you want to report
click About, and then Report.
Note that when something's reported, it's not automatically taken down.
YouTube staff reviews reported content 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Reported content is reviewed against our Community Guidelines
and is checked for age appropriateness.
If no violations are found by our review team
no amount of reporting will change that, and the content will remain on our site.
If you have a privacy concern about content
where someone uses your personal, uniquely identifiable information
please visit our Help Center, where you can use our privacy complaint process.
Next, let's walk through tools to help you moderate comments
if you see any that are harassing or abusive.
First, you can choose to remove a comment posted on your own channel.
You can do this in YouTube Studio from the Published tab
or from the watch page under videos
by clicking the 3-dot menu on desktop or mobile and selecting Remove.
The commenter will not know that you've removed their comment.
If someone is being consistently inappropriate in your comments
you can hide them from your channel.
Hiding a commenter will hide
all of their past and future comments on your videos.
All of their previous comments should be hidden within 48 hours.
The user will not know that you've hidden them.
And nothing will look different on their end
if they try to post new comments on your videos.
There are two options you can use to hide a commenter.
From one of their existing comments or from YouTube Studio.
If you find a comment that they've left on your channel or video
you can select the 3-dot menu and then "Hide user from channel."
Or, to hide them from YouTube Studio, you can copy the user's channel URL
then go to YouTube Studio, then Settings, then Community.
In the "Hidden users" box, paste their channel URL and then click Save.
And finally, what tools can you use to protect your entire comments section
from inappropriate or abusive behavior?
You can create a blocked words list.
Sometimes, people may use words or phrases
that you don't want associated with your channel.
In YouTube Studio, go to Settings and then Community.
Here, you'll see a section for blocked words.
In this section, you can add words or phrases
that you don't want to appear in your comments section.
When someone tries to comment using these blocked words
they won't appear publicly and can be found in the "Held for review" tab.
Some creators choose to ignore this tab entirely
so they don't have to see these comments.
The commenter won't know that their comment has been
automatically held for review.
Or you can choose to block links, which means new comments
with hashtags or URLS will automatically be held for review.
Finally, you can choose to change your comment settings.
You can do so for individual videos, or you can set comment defaults
for all of your future uploads.
With comment settings, you can choose to
allow all comments
hold potentially inappropriate comments for review
hold all comments for review, or disable comments.
If you choose to hold comments, they won't appear publicly
until you've approved them.
Potentially inappropriate comments are held for review on your Comments page
in YouTube Studio under the "Held for review" tab
for up to 60 days.
Comments that may be especially offensive will be filtered at the bottom of this tab.
Remember, you can choose to ignore this tab entirely
so you don't have to see these comments.
To change this setting for an individual video
go to the "Video details" page, then "Show more,"
and then go to the "Comments and ratings" section.
To set comment defaults for all of your videos moving forward
go to Settings in YouTube Studio, then go to Community, then Defaults.
The setting you choose here will apply to comments on all of your new videos.
The safety of our creators, viewers, and partners is our highest priority
and we encourage you to use these various tools available to help you.
Thank you for helping us protect this unique and vibrant community
and thanks for watching.