YouTube Relaxes Profanity Rules for First 7 Seconds of Videos

YouTube

YouTube relaxed its Advertiser Friendly Guidelines, now allowing strong language in the first seven seconds of videos without losing monetization eligibility. This reverses a 2023 policy that demonetized videos with early profanity.

The change reflects advertisers becoming more lenient about appearing alongside profanity, helped by improved targeting tools that let them choose their desired level of profanity exposure. Gaming creators especially benefit, as they can now monetize content without self-censoring their natural language.