YouTube prioritizes the safety of its creators, viewers, and partners and requires users to follow its Community Guidelines to help maintain a safe platform. Content that includes graphic violence, gore, or encourages violent behavior is not permitted.
If content may violate these rules, users should report it using YouTube’s reporting tools. If there is immediate danger, contacting local law enforcement is recommended.
What This Policy Covers
This policy applies to all YouTube features, including videos, comments, livestreams, thumbnails, descriptions, and external links.
Content is not allowed if it includes:
Violent or Graphic Material
- Encouraging or inciting violence against individuals or groups
- Real-world fights, attacks, robberies, accidents, or crime footage meant to shock viewers
- Graphic depictions of injuries, blood, corpses, or death intended to disturb or disgust
- Content showing severe physical harm, including mutilation or extreme injury scenes
- Medical or emergency footage presented solely for shock value
Animal Abuse Content
- Animal fighting (e.g., dog fighting, cockfighting)
- Intentional mistreatment or neglect of animals causing suffering
- Content glorifying or encouraging animal harm
- Staged rescues where animals are deliberately harmed for content
- Hunting or practices that involve unnecessary cruelty outside accepted standards
Fictional or Dramatized Violence
- Violent content that appears real but is not clearly identified as fictional
- Graphic dramatized violence that lacks clear context for viewers
- Content that isolates or highlights violent scenes purely for shock value
Important Exceptions and Context
Some violent content may be allowed if it is clearly presented in an educational, documentary, scientific, artistic, or public-interest context.
However, certain extreme content may still be disallowed even with context, such as:
- Violent sexual assault material
- Footage recorded by perpetrators during major violent incidents involving visible victims or weapons
Age Restrictions vs Removal
YouTube may choose to age-restrict content instead of removing it if it includes violence but also provides sufficient context. Age-restricted content is only available to users 18+.
Factors considered include:
- Whether violent imagery is the main focus
- Whether the content is meant to shock or inform
- How long violent scenes appear
- Whether the violence is clearly fictional or real
- Whether context is provided within the video itself (not just in descriptions)
- Whether imagery is blurred or partially obscured
- Whether the content relates to cultural, religious, or news events
Drastically graphic or realistic depictions of violence, especially involving real human actors, are more likely to be restricted or removed.
Examples of Violating Content
Content that is not allowed includes:
- Encouraging violent attacks or targeting individuals/groups
- Real school fights between minors
- Road accidents or crime scenes shown only for shock value
- Beheading or extreme violence footage
- Videos focusing on serious injuries with sensational titles
- Animal cruelty or staged harm for entertainment
Animal abuse specifically includes:
- Forced animal fighting
- Neglect or abuse shown for entertainment or shock
- Use of harmful hunting or killing methods outside accepted practices
- Exploitative rescue videos that intentionally harm animals
Consequences of Violating This Policy
If a violation occurs, YouTube may:
- Remove the content
- Send a notification email
- Remove unsafe external links
- Issue a warning or strike
First violations typically result in a warning. Policy training may allow warnings to expire after 90 days. Repeated violations can lead to strikes, and three strikes within 90 days may result in channel termination.
Severe or repeated violations can also lead to immediate account removal or loss of features such as livestreaming.
