Harassment and cyberbullying policy

Content or behavior intended to maliciously harass, threaten, or bully others is not allowed on YouTube.

If you see content that violates this policy, please report it. Instructions for reporting violations of our Community Guidelines are available here. If you have found multiple videos, comments, or a user’s entire channel that you wish to report, please visit our reporting tool, where you will be able to submit a more detailed complaint.

If specific threats are made against you and you feel unsafe, tell a trusted adult and report it to your local law enforcement agency.

What this means for you

If you're posting content

Don’t post content on YouTube if it fits any of the descriptions noted below.

  • Revealing someone’s personal information, such as their address, private email addresses, private phone numbers, passport number, or bank account information
    • Note: This does not include posting widely available public information, such as a public official’s office phone number
  • Content that is deliberately posted in order to humiliate someone
  • Content that makes hurtful and negative personal comments/videos about another person
  • Content that incites others to harass or threaten individuals on or off YouTube
  • Content featuring non-consensual sex acts or unwanted sexualization
  • Content threatening specific individuals with physical harm or destruction of property
  • Content featuring abusive or threatening behavior directed at a minor
  • Sexualizing or degrading an individual who is engaged or present in an otherwise non-sexual context
  • Content claiming that specific victims of public violent incidents or their next of kin are actors, or that their experiences are false

This policy applies to videos, video descriptions, comments, live streams, and any other YouTube product or feature. Please note this is not a complete list.

Examples

Here are some examples of content that’s not allowed on YouTube.

  • Threatening someone’s physical safety. Includes both implied threats like “when I see you next things will end badly for you,” and explicit threats like “when I see you on Saturday I’m going to punch you in the face.”
  • Posting an individual’s nonpublic personal identifying information like a phone number, home address, or email for the express purpose of directing abusive attention or traffic toward them. For example: “I got a hold of their phone number, keep on calling and leaving messages until they pick up!”

Please remember these are just some examples, and don't post content if you think it might violate this policy.

More examples

  • Stalking in the real world or online.
  • Maliciously recording someone without their consent.
  • Graphically sexualizing / demeaning / degrading an individual with abusive intent.
  • Posting an individual’s (whether public or private) financial information, passwords, or login credentials in any context.
  • Blackmailing users with embarrassing or harmful information, photographs, videos etc.
  • Requesting viewers undertake measures or carry out investigations that would ultimately violate an individual’s privacy. For example: “I need to get this person’s home address the first person who can help me track this down please let me know ASAP.”
  • Directing users toward a YouTuber’s comment section for the obvious and sole purpose of malicious abuse. For example: “everyone needs to go over to this person’s channel right now and just go crazy, let them know how much we want them to die.”
  • Maliciously ridiculing or mocking an individual based on their personal characteristics. This includes saying something like  “Look at this creature’s teeth, they’re so disgusting!”
  • Displaying a picture of an individual’s head photoshopped to make it appear they are engaged in sexual activity.
  • Accounts dedicated entirely to abusively focusing on or “exposing” a single identifiable individual.
  • “Swatting” or other prank calls to emergency or crisis response services, or encouraging viewers to engage in this behavior.

What happens when content violates this policy

If your content violates this policy, we’ll remove the content and send you an email to let you know. If this is the first time you’ve posted content that violates our Community Guidelines, you’ll get a warning with no penalty to your channel. If it’s not, we’ll issue a strike against your channel. Your channel will be terminated if you receive 3 strikes. You can learn more about our strikes system here.

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