YouTubers have until November 17, 2025, to check their content for compliance with new rules. By then, they must meet certain conditions regarding the depiction of violence from digital games or gambling. The video platform points this out in a support post.
The new rules supplement, among others, the existing rules for violent content from games. Now, according to the post, will also be subject to an age restriction if they show “torture” or “mass violence against non-combatants.” This likely includes civilians in war games. This was already a subject of discussion 16 years ago in a mission from “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” [16 years ago](https://www.heise.de/meinung/E…
YouTubers have until November 17, 2025, to check their content for compliance with new rules. By then, they must meet certain conditions regarding the depiction of violence from digital games or gambling. The video platform points this out in a support post.
The new rules supplement, among others, the existing rules for violent content from games. Now, according to the post, will also be subject to an age restriction if they show “torture” or “mass violence against non-combatants.” This likely includes civilians in war games. This was already a subject of discussion 16 years ago in a mission from “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” 16 years ago – the scene in question was later made skippable after a patch.
Change videos or they will be classified
The duration of the violence depiction and the way it is presented are also crucial for such an age restriction on YouTube for existing videos. If creators do not change their clips, they will automatically be marked as for adults only. This can be avoided by changing the videos: Accounts that have been enabled for this can cut out parts of videos or blur scenes without re-uploading and losing view counts. If this is not done, the videos in question will be age-restricted according to YouTube, but there will be no warning (“strike”) for the channel.
Another tightening for content on YouTube concerns the depiction of and advertising for gambling. “Social casinos,” where one plays for virtual currencies – which can sometimes be bought with real money – will now only be shown to adults. Pure gambling with real currencies has, at least de facto, been banned on YouTube for a longer time. This now also applies if virtual items such as NFTs or additional game content like skins are gambled for in the casinos.
The new rules for YouTube come shortly after the Google subsidiary adjusted its content and advertising formats for display on smart TVs. As these have been a strongly growing platform for YouTube for years, the company apparently wants to present itself as more family-friendly there as well.
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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.