- As a YouTube creator,
have you ever been subjected
to online bullying or harassment?
Let us know in the comments below.
Of course, this should never happen to anyone,
and that includes you.
Which is why we put this video together,
to help you tackle that problem
so that you can create content with energy, passion,
and most importantly, the freedom to express yourself
on the YouTube platform.
- [Man] VidIQ
- [Woman] VidIQ
- [Man] http://www.vidIQ.com
- Online harassment is an unfortunate but well known problem
in digital communities.
According to a Pew Research survey, four in 10 Americans,
have personally experienced some form
of unacceptable online behavior,
from offensive name calling to physical threats.
While no one can erase a chance of being harassed online.
YouTube is doing everything it can
to help creators thrive on its platform.
In fact, recently YouTube did it three powerful things
to promote online safety.
It took a stand against harassment,
resurfaced its community guidelines
and called attention to the safety tools
available to creators.
With this video,
we are following YouTube's lead
to make sure you succeed as a creator.
We're sharing the platform's online harassment solutions,
specifically the safety tools.
We're going to cover what they are, how to use them,
and where to find them when you truly need them.
The first thing you should know
is that there are three protection categories
when it comes to harassment on YouTube.
At the most basic levels,
you can block other users,
moderate comments on your channel,
and adjust the privacy settings of your videos.
The most effective way to block harmful users
from your channel is by tackling those nasty,
hurtful comments.
Here's how, from most YouTube pages on a desktop browser,
click the profile image in top right hand corner
of the screen and go down to the YouTube studio.
From the YouTube studio,
go to the left hand navigation bar and click on comments.
The next thing you'll see is channel comments
but you'll also see tabs for comments held for review
and likely spam.
Now if you click the three dots
next to one of these comments,
you'll see an icon that looks like a stop sign.
This is known as the hide user from Channel tool,
which prevents users from engaging with your content.
Now this tool doesn't ban anyone
from your channel officially,
but it's a great way of blocking unruly members
of your audience.
For example, if you post a video
or a live stream to YouTube,
hating users will still have the ability
to watch your content,
what they won't be able to do,
however, is leave comments on your videos or live stream.
Although YouTube does a good job of automating spam
and abusive comments, it doesn't always quite get it right
so you can automate the comment process further,
through the moderation tools.
So instead of having to delete harmful messages
that are already public,
you can set up filters to stop negative comments
from ever being published on your channel.
Here's how it works from the YouTube studio,
this time you want to click on settings,
and then from a settings screen, go to community.
Now, under the automated filters column,
scroll down to the blocked words section.
In this box type all the words you find offensive
or don't want to see in your comment section,
and that could include subversive like comments.
This could include racial slurs,
curse words or lewd sexual terms
that shouldn't be shared on a public forum.
When you have all of the words typed out,
do a quick skim to make sure that each one
is separated by a comma, as YouTube requires.
Once set up, when a user submits a comment
using any of the blocked words,
the comments will automatically be held for review
instead of publishing instantly.
Now while you can hide users comments
or block certain words,
it won't stop every instance of harassment on your channel.
When rude comments seem to fall through the cracks,
you can take these extra steps if necessary,
you can block all comments with links.
Hold all comments for review before you publish them,
or disable your comments section entirely.
I do know that for children's videos,
comments are already disabled by default.
Of course, these may seem like drastic measures,
but don't be afraid to use them
when you're mental health is at stake.
If someone is negatively impacting you as a creator,
things will only worsen if you let them go unchecked.
When it comes to the video visibility,
there are levels of reach at determine who gets to watch
and share your content on YouTube.
You can tweak the settings to make your videos public,
unlisted, or private.
When a video is public,
anyone can watch and share it across the web.
On YouTube, the video will appear in search results
and related video lists.
As for unlisted videos,
they won't appear on your channel or in YouTube search,
but they may appear in playlists.
These videos usually should only be viewed
and shared by people who have the link to that video.
As for private videos, they can only be viewed by you,
the creator or anyone who has viewing permissions
to your YouTube channel.
To confirm the current visibility of any of the videos
on your YouTube channel.
Go to YouTube studio and then click on the videos link
down on the left hand navigation bar.
Then on the video manager page,
you will see a visibility column showing you the visibility
of all of your videos,
simply click on its current state
and change it if you need to.
Now if someone uploads a video of you,
which you didn't consent to the poster of the video
may have violated YouTube's privacy guidelines.
The resource states that creators
shouldn't expose details about someone's identity online.
And this can include a person's appearance,
voice, their full name, financial information,
contact information and more.
If this does happen to you,
you can reach out to the uploader of the video
and ask them to take down the video.
If for some reason they don't agree to do that,
you can request to have the video removed.
YouTube has a privacy complaint process for users
who feel like their safety is in jeopardy.
While YouTube does have an amazing ecosystem
of safety tools, there are additional resources
to help you cope with online harassment and bullying.
Follow these organizations for more information
around privacy and safety.
We have links to all of these,
plus all of the YouTube resources
we mentioned throughout this video in the description.
YouTube is full of wonderful,
amazing creators, who create content
that positively impacts millions of people every single day.
Unfortunately, there are some users who don't mean Well,
this is where we can do our parts,
both as creators and YouTube viewers,
to make this platform, a positive environment
for all and keep it that way,
by reporting any incidences of online bullying
or harassment where you see it.
And I just want to say this to every creator
who presses the publish button every single day, thank you.
Thank you for contributing to this platform,
in a positive way.
Thank you, for adding value that changes people's lives.
Thank you, for ignoring all of the doubts
and the vulnerabilities that you have,
when you put something out there,
which ultimately is laying you bare as a creator.
You make a difference,
even if you don't see it every single day,
and that is something that we can all celebrate
as part of the YouTube community.