Comments suddenly disappeared from your new videos. Viewers stopped getting notifications, revenue dropped, and YouTube Studio shows “Made for kids” on the videos. You didn’t set it, or you did without understanding the consequences.

The topic became painful for creators in 2019, when Google paid a $170M fine under the US children’s online privacy law (COPPA). Since then the platform strictly separates kids’ content from everything else.

What changes when a video is “made for kids”

  • comments are turned off;
  • only non-personalized ads are shown — revenue per view is usually noticeably lower;
  • the notification bell, end screens, cards and several other features stop working;
  • the video is rarely recommended next to “adult” videos.

For a channel that earns from ads and lives on comments, it’s a serious blow.

How YouTube decides what’s made for kids

The creator must set the audience themselves. But the system checks it and can change the designation if it thinks a video targets children. It looks at:

  • topic and characters: cartoons, toys, kids’ games, characters popular with children;
  • presentation: bright visuals, simple speech, songs;
  • who is on camera: children on camera can change the classification;
  • the title, description and tags.

Gaming channels sit in a grey zone: a game can be popular with kids while the videos are made for teens and adults.

What I have seen in practice

  • After Google’s fine, Minecraft creators didn’t know whether to mark their content as made for kids. We went through the platform’s position and the consequences, and the creators made a considered decision: the videos aren’t for kids, but keep watching the news.
  • In May 2021 a channel had comments turned off on new videos, dropped out of the kids’ selection and lost traffic. We found the cause and requested a review, and comments came back. The takeaway: children on camera can change how the platform “sees” your audience.

What to do

  1. Check the setting on your videos and in the channel settings. If you set it yourself and the videos aren’t for kids, fix it.
  2. If the system set it, look at what might have triggered it: topic, characters, visuals, children on camera. If you’re sure it’s a mistake, request a review.
  3. Don’t mark content “not for kids” falsely. If the videos really are for children, a wrong setting is a violation with consequences worse than losing comments.
  4. Think about the format. If a channel is on the edge, it’s sometimes wiser to separate content clearly: kids’ content in one place, content for older audiences in another.

What not to do

  • Change the setting on all videos at once without a review.
  • Remove mentions of a game or topic from descriptions without changing the content: the system looks at the whole video.
  • Ignore the problem: lost revenue and recommendations won’t come back on their own.

What next

The “made for kids” designation isn’t a penalty, but it changes the channel’s economics. The key is to understand whether the platform sees your audience correctly and to choose a strategy.

If your comments were turned off or revenue dropped because of “made for kids”, in a consultation I’ll review the channel and tell you what can be done.