Our Youth Principles

The following principles are core to YouTube's work on creating a safer and more enriching environment for young people.

Through these principles, we hope to contribute to the important conversations taking place among policy makers, families, researchers and experts around building an Internet that young people deserve.

See more in our blog post.
For our full legislative framework, please visit here.

1. The privacy, physical safety, mental health and wellbeing of children and teenagers require special protections online.

Protecting children and teenagers is and must always be core to our work, and we want to make their experiences on our platform safer and more enriching.

We also have a fundamental responsibility to understand young peoples' mental health needs, develop safeguards to address those needs and serve as allies and advocates for their wellbeing.

2. Parents and caregivers play an important role in setting the rules for their family's online experiences, particularly for their youngest children.

YouTube gives parents and caregivers ways to customise the online experiences that are best for their families. We design different modes of YouTube, parental controls, features and settings for different age ranges, so that families can set the balance of supervision and independence that's right for them and their child's or teenager's development.

And because there's no one-size-fits-all answer, YouTube offers resources, guidance and support to help families make smart, informed choices for their young children, older teenagers and every child in between.

3. All children deserve free access to high-quality and age-appropriate content that meets their individual interests and needs.

We keep high-quality and age-appropriate content free and accessible to all young people. We never show personalised ads to children and we don't think that others should either.

Our Recommendations system is designed to provide a safer and more enriching experience for younger users across YouTube. It helps connect them with high-quality content – informed by quality principles developed in collaboration with independent child development and digital wellbeing experts – that inspires curiosity, imagination and creativity.

4. The developmental needs of children differ greatly from those of teenagers, and should be reflected in their online experiences.

Interests, needs and developmental capabilities vary widely between an 8-year-old, a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old.

YouTube works with outside experts in children's media, child development, digital learning and citizenship from a range of academic, non-profit and clinical backgrounds to develop age-appropriate experiences that support and protect young people at every stage of life.

5. With appropriate safeguards, innovative technologies can benefit children and teenagers.

Young people are often early adopters when it comes to innovation. We want them to have positive experiences in using new tools, so we work to assess and mitigate the risks of new technologies from the outset.

We work with industry experts, researchers and parents to ensure that families have a clear understanding of how new technologies can help younger users learn, create and grow, as well as how they can have limitations.