YouTube Made-for-Kids

What is the Made-for-Kids flag?

Made-for-Kids (MFK) is a mandatory classification flag on every YouTube upload. Creators must declare whether the video targets children under 13. The flag exists for COPPA compliance — the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which restricts data collection on children under 13. YouTube was fined $170M by the FTC in 2019 for inadequate kids-content classification; the MFK flag is the platform's response to ensure ongoing compliance.

MFK has cascading effects on a video's experience. Videos marked Made-for-Kids: lose personalized ads (only contextual ads shown), lose comments, lose notifications to subscribers, lose live chat, can't be saved to playlists, can't be added to a 'Watch Later' list. The restrictions apply regardless of who actually watches the video. For most general audience creators, marking content as 'Not made for kids' is the right answer.

How to classify correctly

The COPPA standard isn't whether kids might happen to watch your video; it's whether the video targets children. YouTube's guidance focuses on three signals. (1) Subject matter — content about children's media, toys, kids' games, animated characters typically marketed to children. (2) Visual presentation — bright colors, simple stories, child-actor protagonists. (3) Audience cues — language, complexity, cultural references aimed at kids. If your content hits 2-3 of these, mark MFK. If it's general adult-oriented content (tech reviews, cooking, business), mark Not made for kids.

The FTC publishes guidance with examples. When in doubt, conservative classification protects you from regulatory risk; over-classifying as MFK costs ad revenue but eliminates compliance concerns.

Setting MFK via API

Every YouTube upload via API must include the made-for-kids parameter. CodivUpload's API exposes `youtube_made_for_kids` as a boolean (default false). Setting it to true classifies the video as Made-for-Kids; false marks it Not made for kids. The flag is required — uploads without explicit value get rejected by YouTube. Get this wrong and you risk either FTC penalties (mis-classifying actual kids content as adult) or losing key features for false-positive marking.

Mark YouTube upload as Not made for kids via API

json

// POST /v1/posts
{
  "profile_name": "main",
  "platforms": ["youtube"],
  "post_type": "video",
  "media_urls": ["https://cdn.example.com/tutorial.mp4"],
  "description": "Tutorial on building APIs in 2026",

  "youtube_title": "How to Build a REST API in 2026",
  "youtube_made_for_kids": false,        // REQUIRED — adult-targeted content
  "youtube_category": 28,                 // Science & Technology
  "youtube_privacy_status": "public"
}

Frequently asked questions