YouTube finally clarifies how profanity affects monetization of videos

YouTube has decided to clarify just how profanity can affect how people make money on the video sharing platform. 

There has been no new changes to YouTube’s monetization policies on profanity, but this new video from Creator Insider does shed some light on the criteria used when the decision is made to allow a video to run adverts or not. 

The short clip runs through some of the words that advertizers tend to raise concern about, the context in which profanity could be deemed acceptable and provides some insight into the ideal placement of profanity within video content.

“Things like dang, shoot, damn, hell, no worries about those like they’re totally safe to monetize. You can use them as much as you want in your video, the title or thumbnail” says John, from YouTube’s Monetization team. 

F-bombs and other words which you wouldn’t typically hear on primetime television should not be included in thumbnails, titles or the beginning of videos, the pair explain. 

“There’s going to be a type of content that’s just not safe for monetization at all and that’s any use of racial slurs, derogatory content, really mean or hateful words” he added. 

It’s clearly about context with some profanity, though. Swear words will be deemed acceptable, for example, if the content creator stubs their toe or says it as a reaction to something of a similar nature. 

However, swearing directly at somebody else and targeting another person in a hateful way is another way to make your content unsafe for monetization.