YouTube is revising its profanity policy that was introduced in November 2020, which had strict rules on the use of strong and moderate profanity, making any video with rude language in the first few seconds ineligible for advertising. This caused many creators to lose monetization status, even for videos published prior to the new policy.
However, the updated policy now allows the use of moderate and strong profanity without risking demonetization. YouTube’s latest guidelines provide more flexibility on the use of such language, allowing creators to express themselves more freely without the risk of being flagged.
Under the new YouTube policy, videos that contain moderate profanity in the first seven seconds will not be restricted in any way and will remain eligible for advertising. However, if strong profanity is used in the opening seconds, the video will receive only “limited ads.”
This is a less restrictive policy compared to the original rules, which resulted in complete demonetization for both scenarios. While creators can now use more colorful language after the first seven seconds without the risk of losing advertising revenue, excessive swearing may still lead to demonetization or limited ads.
According to the update, the use of strong language in background, outro, or intro music will no longer impact a video’s monetization status. The new language policy will come into effect from March 7th, and while it may not address all the concerns raised by creators about the November ruleset, it should make it simpler for most YouTubers to monetize their videos without having to make significant changes to their content or style.
This is great news for me as a gaming content creator. It can be hard to not use foul language during an intense gaming session especially with the boys. Even harder when I play horror games and I try not to get un-alived. Occasionally some words will slip pass which results in either re-filming, ‘bleeping’ the audio or in the worst case, removing the entire footage completely.
This is a somewhat good step in the right direction. Hopefully Youtube can continue to reverse some of its other decisions and improve on its other policies especially relating to copyright.
