YouTube community guidelines — the basics
Community guidelines cover what you can post on YouTube. Here is a plain-English summary of the eight categories and their enforcement tiers.
Last updated: Tue May 12 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
YouTube's community guidelines define what content is allowed on the platform. They are distinct from the monetization policies (which are about which content can earn ad revenue). Community guidelines violations result in warnings, strikes, or termination.
The eight policy categories
- Spam, deceptive practices, and scams — fake engagement, misleading metadata, scams
- Sensitive content — nudity, sexual content, suicide/self-harm, vulgar language
- Violent or dangerous content — violence, hate speech, harassment, dangerous acts
- Regulated goods — firearms, drugs, alcohol promotion to minors
- Misinformation — election misinformation, harmful health misinformation
- Authentic engagement — buying subscribers, view bots, comment spam
- Account & impersonation policies — fake channels claiming to be others
- Child safety — content endangering minors, sexualization of minors
Each category has subpolicies. The full list lives at support.google.com/youtube/topic/2803176.
Enforcement tiers
YouTube's response scales with severity and history:
- Warning — first-time minor violation. No strike, no upload block.
- Strike — second violation or first severe violation. Expires after 90 days.
- Second strike within 90 days — 2-week upload block.
- Third strike within 90 days — channel terminated.
- Severe single violation — channel can be terminated on a single upload (child safety, doxxing, credible threats).
What triggers each tier
Strikes are issued by human reviewers, not the automated classifier. The automated system flags content for review; humans decide whether to issue a strike. This is why the strike rate is much lower than the limited-monetization rate — strikes have a human in the loop.
How to check your strike status
Studio → Content → Restrictions lists any active strikes with their issue date and expiration date. You can also see warnings and community guidelines education modules you've been assigned.
What expires when
- Community guidelines warnings: never expire from the record, but don't count toward strike escalation
- Strikes: expire 90 days after issuance
- Termination: permanent unless successfully appealed
How this differs from copyright
Copyright strikes are issued under a different policy (DMCA), have their own appeal flow (counter-notification), and a separate expiration (90 days from claimant withdrawal or successful counter, plus completion of Copyright School).