How do buyers find family friendly YouTube channels that are not made for kids?
Part of YouTube brand safety
The short answer
Family friendly YouTube channels are general audience channels that are safe for everyone but not aimed at children, such as a parent's vlog about a theme park visit. YouTube says family friendly content is not made for kids by that fact alone. Buyers find them by placement, leave the Content Suitable for Families exclusion off and check each audience setting.
Key takeaways
- Family friendly describes tone; made for kids is the audience setting YouTube requires creators to make to help them comply with COPPA, and YouTube says one does not imply the other.
- Google's Content Suitable for Families theme covers content families view together, including made for kids videos, so excluding it removes more than children's content.
- A general audience family channel can still serve ads without personalization, because creators can disable interest-based ads and Google limits personalization for viewers under 18.
- Placement targeting by channel, checked against the madeForKids field, is the practical way to build a family plan.
- The checks that matter for a family plan are the audience setting, how children appear on screen and whether the channel is built around products.
What is the difference between family content and made for kids content on YouTube?
YouTube's guide on determining if content is made for kids (opens in a new tab) answers the question directly. A video is not necessarily made for kids just because "It's safe or appropriate for everyone to watch (aka it's 'family friendly')", because it covers an activity traditionally associated with children, or because children may incidentally see it. Made for kids is an audience designation that creators must set under an agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission and to help them comply with COPPA. In the United States, YouTube says a kid is anyone under 13.
Definition
- General audience content
- In YouTube's words, "content that could appeal to everyone, but isn't intended specifically for children, or content that is intended for a teen or older audience." YouTube says it should be set as not made for kids.
| Audience type | YouTube's description | YouTube's examples | Audience setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| General audience | Could appeal to everyone, not intended specifically for children | A family vlog telling other parents about an amusement park visit; a DIY video on remaking dolls; animated content that appeals to everyone | Not made for kids |
| Mixed audience | Targets children as one of its audiences, even if not the primary one | No list; decided by balancing the FTC factors | Made for kids |
| Primarily children | Children are the primary audience | Content with actors, characters, songs or stories that reflect an intent to target children | Made for kids |
The family plan lives in the first row. The made for kids rows bring their own ad rules, covered in made for kids YouTube ads. YouTube also notes that YouTube Analytics "is not designed to help determine if your content is child directed," so a buyer cannot read the audience type from viewer age charts.
What does the Content Suitable for Families exclusion remove?
Google's content suitability page (opens in a new tab) lists Content Suitable for Families among its excluded content themes and defines it as "Content that's suitable for families to view together, including Made for Kids videos on YouTube." The word including matters. The theme reaches past made for kids videos to content that families watch together, which is close to the definition of the general audience family channels a plan like this one is trying to reach.
The theme moved in 2024. Google's digital content label list now says "Content suitable for families is now found in 'Excluded content themes'," and its note on the September 2024 change says YouTube ads no longer use digital content labels while Content suitable for families "will continue to exist even after the deprecation." Like other themes, it applies to YouTube, the Display Network and Google video partners, does not apply to YouTube Sponsorship campaigns, and sits under Advanced settings on the account's Content suitability page.
| YouTube surface | Excluded content themes apply? |
|---|---|
| In-stream video | Yes, for the main video on the watch page |
| YouTube Watch Next feed | Yes |
| YouTube Shorts | Yes, except Video action and Performance Max campaigns |
| YouTube Home feed | No |
| YouTube Subscription feed | No |
| YouTube Sponsorship campaigns | No; Sponsorships bypass account level exclusions |
Which family channels can run personalized ads?
Only channels set as not made for kids, and even then not always. YouTube's page on ads and made for kids content (opens in a new tab) says personalized ads, remarketing and other personalized targeting features are prohibited on content set as made for kids. On general audience channels, two further switches can remove personalization. YouTube's page on turning off personalized ads (opens in a new tab) lets Partner Program creators tick "Disable interest-based ads" in YouTube Studio; personalized ads such as interest based or remarketing ads then stop on the channel, while "Ads without personalization will continue to be shown."
The second switch is the viewer. Google's ad protections for children and teens (opens in a new tab) policy disables ads personalization for users under the digital age of consent and for teens under 18, on YouTube, Google Display Ads and Display & Video 360. Google may also limit categories such as alcohol, gambling and shocking content for users who are not signed in or whom its systems indicate are under 18. A family vlog watched by a parent and a teen together may therefore serve each of them differently.
| Situation | Personalized ads | Ads without personalization |
|---|---|---|
| Channel or video set as made for kids | No | Yes, contextual, with some categories barred |
| General audience, creator disabled interest-based ads | No | Yes |
| General audience, default settings, adult viewer | Possible | Yes |
| General audience, viewer under 18 | No; personalization disabled for the viewer | Yes, with restricted categories |
How do you find family friendly YouTube channels for a brand?
Start from placements, not from a theme. Google's guide to adding targeting to Video campaigns (opens in a new tab) lets buyers search for and add YouTube channels or videos as placements, and says to add "a minimum of 10 YouTube channels or videos" or the campaign cannot be saved. The same page warns that ads will show on content that matches any of the topics, placements or keywords targeted, so adding a broad family topic beside the channel list widens delivery beyond the reviewed channels.
Building a family channel list
- Name the family moments in the brief. Write down the activities the brand belongs beside, such as weekend outings, home projects or holiday traditions, and who the viewer is: parents, grandparents or the whole household.
- Search by activity, not by "kids." Search terms built on children pull in made for kids channels; terms built on the parent's task pull in general audience creators.
- Read the audience setting. The YouTube Data API's videos resource (opens in a new tab) gives status.madeForKids for each video; check a channel's recent uploads, not only its oldest ones.
- Sample recent videos. Watch enough uploads to see how children appear, what the creator sells and whether the tone holds across the channel.
- Keep the theme off. Confirm that Content Suitable for Families is not excluded at the account level before launch.
What checks matter for family YouTube channels?
Family channels carry risks that general topic review misses. YouTube's advertiser friendly content guidelines (opens in a new tab) give limited or no ad earnings to content "made to appear appropriate for kids and families, but contains adult themes," and to content that looks family safe but is built to scare or shock children. For made for kids content, YouTube's channel monetization policies (opens in a new tab) apply quality principles that flag videos that are heavily promotional, encourage negative behaviors, are deceptively educational, hard to follow, sensational or misleading, or make strange use of children's characters.
Family channel review before approval
- Recent uploads are set as not made for kids, and none read as mixed audience content aimed partly at children.
- Children who appear are part of a family story, not the product or the main act.
- The channel is not built around unboxing or product hauls, which YouTube names as heavily promotional in kids and family content.
- No upload pairs family styling with adult themes, scare content or shock thumbnails.
- Content is original, since YouTube's monetization policies say content should not be mass produced, generic, repetitive or manipulative.
- The account's Content Suitable for Families exclusion is off, and no keyword exclusion blocks family terms.
Fictional example
A photo book printing service in Minnesota
A fictional photo book and family calendar printing service based in Minneapolis wants YouTube ads beside family travel, holiday and home life content, aimed at parents and grandparents in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth before the winter holidays.
The planner finds that the account excluded Content Suitable for Families for a previous client and switches it off with the account lead's sign-off. Activity searches for holiday traditions and family road trips produce a shortlist. A parent vlog about weekend outings stays. A channel whose newest uploads switched to made for kids is set aside, because the brief chose general audience only. A channel of toy unboxings hosted by a child is left out as product led. The final list records the audience setting of each channel and the date it was read.
How does PlacementGraph build family YouTube plans?
A family plan depends on reading the audience label correctly and on keeping it current after launch.
Frequently asked questions
Can a family friendly channel be set as made for kids by YouTube?
Yes. YouTube's audience setting page (opens in a new tab) says it uses machine learning to identify videos clearly directed to young audiences and may override a creator's setting in cases of error or abuse; the creator can appeal. Personalized ads then stop on the affected videos, so read the label on recent uploads before each flight.
Is Content Suitable for Families the same as the old DL-G label?
No. Google's list of digital content labels shows DL-G as content suitable for general audiences, with a note that Content suitable for families now sits under excluded content themes. Digital content labels no longer apply to YouTube ads since September 2024, while the families theme continues to apply to YouTube.
Does a teen audience make a family channel made for kids?
No. YouTube's definition of general audience content includes content intended for a teen or older audience, which should be set as not made for kids. In the United States, YouTube treats a kid as anyone under 13. Teen viewers still receive Google's teen ad protections, including disabled ads personalization.
Can a brand target only general audience channels in Google Ads?
Google Ads has no switch that selects general audience channels only. The practical route is a reviewed placement list of channels set as not made for kids, with the made for kids status checked on recent uploads and the families theme left off. Topic or keyword targeting added beside the list can widen delivery past it.
Sources
- Determining if your content is made for kids (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- Set your channel or video's audience (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- About content suitability (opens in a new tab)Google Ads Help
- Turn off personalized ads (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- Ad protections for children and teens (opens in a new tab)Google Advertising Policies Help
- How ads work on YouTube for supervised accounts and content set as made for kids (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- Add targeting to your Video campaigns (opens in a new tab)Google Ads Help
- Videos resource (YouTube Data API) (opens in a new tab)Google for Developers
- Advertiser-friendly content guidelines (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- YouTube channel monetization policies (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.