YouTube movies with sturdy profanity within the first seven seconds (phrases like “fuck”) are actually eligible for full monetization, in line with a video from Conor Kavanagh, YouTube’s head of monetization coverage expertise. Beforehand, these sorts of movies had been solely eligible for “limited ad revenue.”
Modifications to YouTube’s inappropriate language insurance policies have lengthy been a sore spot for creators. In November 2022, the corporate started to probably restrict advert income if profanity was used within the first 8–15 seconds of a video. ProZD, whose actual title is SungWon Cho, revealed a video the place, after ready 15 seconds, he known as the coverage change “the dumbest fucking shit I’ve ever heard.” (He later mentioned that the video was demonetized.) YouTube adjusted its insurance policies in March 2023, together with permitting movies with profanity within the first 8–15 seconds to be eligible for advert income.
I requested ProZD his ideas about Tuesday’s change. “It’s about fucking time.”
The corporate initially restricted monetization for movies with swearing at first of movies to “align with broadcast requirements,” Kavanagh says. “Advertisers anticipated advertisements on YouTube to have distance between profanity and the advert that simply served.” Nonetheless, “these expectations have modified,” he says, “and advertisers have already got the power to focus on content material to their desired stage of profanity.”
Whereas the one particular instance of “sturdy” profanity Kavanagh supplies is “fuck” — he says that YouTube defines “reasonable profanity” as phrases like “asshole” or “bitch” — “you get the concept,” he says.
YouTube will proceed to restrict monetization for those who use reasonable or sturdy profanity in titles or thumbnails. Movies with a “excessive frequency” of sturdy profanity are additionally nonetheless a “violation” of YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content material pointers, Kavanagh says. “It’s a must to choose and select your fucks rigorously.”
