What should brands check before advertising on family vlogs?
Part of YouTube brand safety
The short answer
Family vlogs that feature children carry risks a brand must check: YouTube's child safety policy, advertiser guidelines that remove ads from some scenes with minors, disabled comments and features, and sponsorship disclosure rules. A family vlog is not automatically made for kids, so judge each channel on its recent videos, how children appear and how it discloses paid deals.
Key takeaways
- YouTube's child safety policy bars putting minors in harmful situations, emotional maltreatment and revealing a minor's personal information, and content that depicts children may have comments, live chat and recommendations disabled.
- The advertiser-friendly guidelines list minors consuming alcohol, dangerous acts with a minor as participant or victim, and visible genitals such as diaper changes as no ad earnings.
- Comments can be off for two different reasons: the video is set as made for kids, or YouTube disabled features on content that depicts children; neither proves misconduct.
- Sponsored family videos need a clear disclosure in the video under FTC guidance in the US, and Ad Standards treats a family relationship as a material connection in Canada.
What brand risks come with family vlog channels?
A family vlog sells the everyday life of a household. When children are part of that story, the channel attracts brands in cars, groceries, travel and home goods, and its risk sits in how the children are shown. The risks below come from YouTube's policies and from advertising and privacy regulators; each points at something a planner can check.
| Risk | What it looks like | Source of the rule |
|---|---|---|
| Child safety violation | Children in dangerous stunts, pranks that cause distress, or personal details such as a school name on screen | YouTube Child Safety policy |
| Lost ad earnings on specific scenes | Minors drinking alcohol or vaping, a minor in a dangerous act, a bath or diaper scene with nudity | YouTube advertiser-friendly content guidelines |
| Features switched off | Comments, live chat or recommendations disabled on videos that depict children | YouTube Child Safety policy |
| Undisclosed paid deals | Products in the video with no clear statement of payment or free product | FTC influencer guidance (US); Ad Standards Interpretation Guideline 5 (Canada) |
| Children's privacy | Daily routines, faces and locations of children published to a public channel | Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada |
| Audience label changes | A channel that shifts toward child directed videos and is set as made for kids | YouTube audience guidance |
These risks differ in kind. A child safety violation can remove a video or a channel; a lost ad earnings line affects one video; an undisclosed sponsorship sits between the creator, the sponsor and the regulator. Keeping them apart in the review keeps the reason for each decision visible.
What are YouTube's rules for videos featuring minors?
Two YouTube pages set the frame. The Child Safety policy (opens in a new tab) lists what is not allowed, and its instruction to creators is direct: never put minors in harmful situations that may lead to injury. It bars inflicting or advocating physical, sexual or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child, content that reveals a minor's personal information, and content that targets young minors and families but contains mature material. It adds that live streams with minors under 16 who are not visibly accompanied by an adult may be removed.
YouTube's best practices for content with children, as creators are asked to follow them
- Respect privacy: secure consent from the minor's parent or legal guardian before featuring them in a video.
- Make sure the child's participation in the video is voluntary.
- Moderate user comments on videos that feature children.
- Follow applicable laws around paying minors for their work, which may mean a wage, a share of revenue or a protected set aside, depending on local law.
The checklist comes from YouTube's best practices for content with children (opens in a new tab). For monetization, the advertiser-friendly content guidelines (opens in a new tab) add specific lines. Portrayal of minors consuming alcohol, even if it is not the central subject of the video, is no ad earnings; so is footage of minors consuming vaping or tobacco products, dangerous acts that include a minor as a participant or victim, and content showing visible genitals, such as when changing a diaper or babies swimming fully naked. Videos featuring play fighting or roughhousing between minors with no injuries or distress can earn ads.
Why are comments disabled on some family videos?
There are two separate reasons, and a reviewer should know which one applies. The first is the audience label: YouTube's comment settings page (opens in a new tab) says comments are turned off on videos designated as made for kids, and creators cannot change comment settings on them. The second is child safety: the Child Safety policy says content that does not violate policy but depicts children or is uploaded by minors may have some features disabled at both the channel and content level, including comments, live chat and video recommendations.
| What the reviewer sees | Likely reason | What to check next |
|---|---|---|
| Comments off and the video is labeled made for kids | The made for kids setting turns comments off | Whether the plan accepts made for kids inventory at all |
| Comments off on a general audience video with children on screen | YouTube may have disabled features on content depicting children, or the creator chose to | How the children appear across recent videos |
| Comments on, with heavy creator moderation visible | The creator is moderating, as YouTube's best practices ask | Nothing extra; this is the expected practice |
Neither reason proves wrongdoing: YouTube says the feature limits apply to content that does not violate policy. The comment setting is a prompt to read how children are shown, not a verdict. The guide to YouTube comments and brand safety covers comment sections in a review.
Are family vlogs made for kids content?
Not by default. YouTube's audience guidance (opens in a new tab) gives a family vlog telling other parents about an amusement park visit as an example of general audience content, which it describes as content that could appeal to everyone but is not intended specifically for children. The same page says mixed audience content, which targets children as one of its audiences even if not the main one, counts as made for kids. A family channel can move from the first to the second when its videos start speaking to the children instead of the parents.
The difference matters for the plan's settings, because made for kids videos allow only contextual ads and turn off comments. The family friendly YouTube channels guide covers how to build a family list, and the made for kids misclassification guide covers labels that do not match the content. The YouTube brand safety guide shows where the label sits among the account's other controls.
How should a brand judge a family vlog channel?
A family vlog review reads the channel's recent months as a whole, because single videos can mislead in both directions. It checks how children appear, which monetization lines the videos come near, how paid deals are disclosed, and how much of the children's lives the channel exposes.
A family vlog review for one channel
- Watch how the children appear. Across ten or more recent videos, note whether children are filmed in distress, in stunts or pranks, or in bath and changing scenes, all of which YouTube's policies address.
- Look for personal details. Note school names, home exteriors, street signs or daily schedules on screen, since the Child Safety policy bars revealing a minor's personal information.
- Check the sponsorship disclosures. Under the FTC's influencer guidance (opens in a new tab), the disclosure should be in the video and not just in the description; in Canada, Ad Standards' Interpretation Guideline 5 (opens in a new tab) asks for disclosure clearly and prominently disclosed in close proximity to the representation.
- Read the audience label and the comment state. Record whether the channel and recent videos are made for kids, and whether comments are off, and why.
- Decide the tier and write the reason. Keep, keep with video level exclusions, or exclude, naming the videos and the policy line behind each call.
Definition
- Material connection
- In the FTC's words, a connection to a brand that includes a personal, family or employment relationship, or a financial relationship such as the brand paying the creator or giving free or discounted products. Ad Standards' Guideline 5 says a family relationship is also a material connection that may affect the weight or credibility of a representation.
Privacy is the hardest line to score. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, in its online privacy tips for parents (opens in a new tab), warns that photos parents post can be copied and shared and stay online for a long time. A brand can set its own limit, such as no channels that film children in private moments, and apply it the same way to each candidate.
What does a family vlog review look like on a real brief?
Fictional example
An auto dealer group reviews family vlogs in Iowa
An unnamed group of auto dealerships in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport wants YouTube ads for minivans and three row SUVs, in English, beside family travel, road trip and home life vlogs. Its brief rules out channels that film children in distress or in private moments.
The planner reviews twenty four family channels across their recent uploads. Nineteen show parents talking to other parents, with children in ordinary scenes, and stay on the list. Two run prank series in which a child cries on camera and are excluded. One posts a weekly school run that shows the school's sign and is excluded under the brand's privacy line. Two have comments off on general audience videos; their content is read again, found ordinary, and both are kept.
One kept channel had a paid car seat review with the disclosure only in the description, so the agency notes it for the client's sponsorship team rather than the media plan.
How does PlacementGraph help screen family channels in a YouTube plan?
A family vlog review needs a person watching videos. PlacementGraph supplies the channel list and the label facts that review starts from.
Frequently asked questions
Does YouTube require family vloggers to pay the children who appear?
YouTube's best practices for content with children tell creators to follow applicable laws around paying minors for their work. Depending on local law, YouTube says that may mean a wage, a share of video revenue or a protected set aside. The obligation comes from local law, not a YouTube payment rule.
Can a family vlogger live stream with their children?
Yes, with limits. YouTube's Child Safety policy says live streams with minors under 16 who are not visibly accompanied by an adult may be removed, and live chat may be disabled on content that depicts children. A stream with a parent visibly present falls outside that removal line.
Does a family vlog lose ads for showing a baby's bath?
It can. YouTube's advertiser-friendly guidelines list content showing visible genitals, such as when changing a diaper or babies swimming fully naked, as no ad earnings. A bath scene filmed without nudity is not described by that line, so the video's framing decides it.
Is a family relationship a disclosure issue in sponsored videos?
In Canada, Ad Standards' Interpretation Guideline 5 says a family relationship is also a material connection that may affect the weight or credibility of a representation. The FTC's influencer guidance names family relationships as material connections too, for example a parent promoting a spouse's business.
Sources
- Child Safety policy (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- Best practices for content with children (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- Advertiser-friendly content guidelines (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- Choose comment settings (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- Determining if your content is made for kids (opens in a new tab)YouTube Help
- Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers (November 2019) (opens in a new tab)US Federal Trade Commission
- Interpretation Guidelines (Guideline 5, updated October 2020) (opens in a new tab)Ad Standards
- 12 online privacy tips for parents and caregivers (opens in a new tab)Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.