YouTube
Effective Ways to Block Adult Content on YouTube
Block adult content on YouTube and disable problematic features. Ensure that blocking isn't bypassed.
While relatively rare, it's often a concern for adults and parents that explicit content can be accessed from the YouTube platform. There are several ways that adult content can be effectively blocked on YouTube in such a way that it's very difficult to disable or bypass.
YouTube does provide a built-in filter that can filter most mature videos called Restricted Mode, but there are a few other ways you might consider that work well with Restricted Mode.
Choosing an Approach for Filtering Content on YouTube
- For Adults: you should use a combination of techniques to ensure a more effective approach.
- For Parents: If you're a parent who's trying to set up a child's device, you should check out our dedicated YouTube parental controls guide . Depending on the age of your child, it might make more sense to force the use of YouTube kids instead.
All of these methods can be combined without interfering with each other, although, because each major platform is different, you may not be able to use all approaches on every device.
Enforce YouTube's Built-in Adult Content Filter
Our first recommendation is to enforce YouTube restricted mode , which is YouTube's build in adult content filter.
This will hide the vast majority of adult content on YouTube from both search results and the home page, while blocking videos with explicit content if visited directly.
For more information about how to set this up, see our dedicated guide for forcing Restricted Mode on YouTube .
Schedule when YouTube can be Accessed
An effective way to restrict access to adult content on YouTube is to simply block YouTube on a schedule to limit access during times of day where self-control and accountability is the highest.
The easiest way to do this across multiple devices at once is by using a DNS Content Policy with scheduled block rule.
Restrict Access to Reels
If your primary concern is blocking adult content , we highly recommend limiting access to certain problematic features in the YouTube platform. Unfortunately, many social media platforms have added in TikTok-like reels.
In our opinion, this short-form content is harmful, especially if you are trying to build better self-control. Furthermore, we've found that Youtube's restricted mode isn't effective at filtering out suggestive content in YouTube shorts. As a result, we highly recommend that you follow our guide for blocking YouTube shorts entirely .
Disable YouTube Thumbnails to Hide Provocative Images
Long-time users (or even just casual browsers) have heard of the term "clickbait". While annoying, what's more concerning is how some YouTube video thumbnails are deliberately designed to be provocative to attract more views, so we recommend completely disabling thumbnails.
Here's what it looks like on a smartphone:
While thumbnails don't work, YouTube videos will still play, and search can be used without any issues.
(A) Block Thumbnails with a DNS Content Policy
This is usually pretty easy to do with your own Content Policy . As an example, Tech Lockdown members have a rule preset that they can use to automatically start blocking thumbnails:
This option is compatible with most computers and smartphones.
(B) Using the Hosts file to Block Thumbnails
In the same way that a DNS Content Policy lets you block thumbnails, you can manually block thumbnails with the Hosts file.
# YouTube Thumbnails 0.0.0.0 i.ytimg.com 0.0.0.0 yt3.ggpht.com 0.0.0.0 ytimg.com