When can I use swear words in a video?

Profanity in YouTube videos. What with them? If I curse in the video, does that mean a one-way ticket to the yellow dollar? It doesn't have to be that way. YouTube tries to offer advertisers a safe space for their advertising, which is why we witness frequent tightening of the rules, but this time YouTube has come up with a relaxation and clarification of the regulations for the use of profanity in the video. What does this mean for creators? Let's take a look.

The most important thing for the creator is that his videos comply with Community Guidelines, which determine what is and isn't allowed on YouTube. In the case of profanity, these rules say:
“If profanity or profanity occurs frequently throughout the video, such content may not be suitable for advertising. Rare profanity (for example in music videos) does not necessarily make the video unsuitable for advertising.”

This interpretation is largely general and there is no clearly defined boundary when and what kind of swearing can be used in a video. YouTube has therefore expanded Advertiser-Eligible Content Guidelines for new, more detailed information to help us better define this boundary. But before we explain them, it is necessary to understand how YouTube evaluates profanity in a video and suitability for monetization.

TITLE, THUMBNAILS AND AMOUNT OF Swearing IS KEY

YouTube checks the entire video from the title to the closing greeting, and profanity can very quickly affect the monetization of your video. The platform itself recommends that you avoid profanity in the title and thumbnail . Regarding the content of the video, YouTube divides swearing into 3 categories:

1. SLIGHT VULGARISM

Mild vulgarisms include words such as "hell" or "docherta" in English, for example "hell" and "damn". These profanities can be used in a video in unlimited quantities and will not affect the monetization of the video in any way.

2. MEDIUM GROSS VULGARISM

This category includes swear words that are normally censored on radio or television, such as "what's wrong with you" or in English "what the fck". Using these vulgarities already increases the risk of demonetizing a YouTube video. In this case, it is important how and how often swear words are used in the video. First of all, swear words must not discriminate or denigrate any minorities, religion or sexual orientation in any way, and secondly, they must not be used too often.

3. GROSS VULGARISM AND HATE SPEECH

The last category includes expressive words such as "kkot" or in English "fck", the purpose of which is to insult or humiliate someone. If your video contains similar profanity for the purpose of discriminating or defaming an individual or group of people, your video will definitely be demonetized.

GREEN DOLLAR VS YELLOW DOLLAR

Once you upload your video to YouTube studio, your video will go through a review, which can result in a green or yellow dollar, for example. You get a green dollar if your video does not violate community guidelines or copyright in any way and is suitable for all advertisers. On the other hand, a yellow dollar indicates that your video is not suitable for all advertisers and parties paying for advertising can decide whether to place it in your video or not. A yellow dollar means limited or no ads for you. So what's allowed and what's not? We cracked it for you.

1. THE GREEN DOLLAR

Mild profanity is considered completely fine by YouTube, so you can:
– use mild profanity throughout your video without restriction, even in the title and thumbnail.
– use censored profanity (beeping, turning off the sound, covering the mouth with a picture). But more than beeping, we recommend changing to a completely different sound, e.g. a starting car, a barking dog, how many beeped sections are viewed by YouTube as a potential demonetization video.
– use abbreviated profanity (WTF, JBMNT).

2. GREEN/YELLOW DOLLAR

In the case of medium and coarse profanity, the context and how often the profanity occurs in the video is important. You can get a yellow dollar if in the video:
- if often you use moderately coarse and crude vulgarisms (e.g. in every sentence) even if they are poorly written, e.g. "This is good chu1ovina!".
But if you use a minimum of moderately coarse or crude profanity, or if you always censor them, for example by booing, your video should be monetized without restrictions.

3. YELLOW DOLLAR

In this case, not only will your video definitely be demonetized, but YouTube itself recommends that you turn off ads for videos in which:
are extremely profanity used in the title, thumbnail, or during the video, such as pča, kkot, b*zerant, or other hateful slurs.
crude or extreme profanity occurs, even if poorly written, for example "dpče!".

The most significant change brought by the policy update is thatcreators can use slurs like “shit” or “bitch” even in the introduction of the video without the threat of demonetization. In the past it was very important that there was no profanity in the first 30 seconds, which was especially paid for by gaming channels, who regularly received a yellow dollar due to this rule and their profits from videos were several times lower.

In order to simplify the content of the article, we decided to prepare a simple summary for you in 3 tips at the end:
1. Completely avoid using gross profanity in videos.
2. When using moderately coarse profanity, be careful how often you say it, try to avoid swear words every other sentence.
3. If you use a lot of profanity and can't control it when you talk, censor it.

We hope that this topic is a little clearer for you, and if you use all the tips, your videos will be monetized without any problems. We keep our fingers crossed for you when you make new videos, and if needed, don't hesitate to contact.