In the United States, the age requirement for a YouTube channel is 13. That’s because every channel runs on a Google Account, and Google’s minimum signup age is 13. Younger children can still watch YouTube and even appear in videos, but they can’t own or run a channel on their own. Two later age walls matter too: you have to be 18 to watch age-restricted videos, and 18 to earn ad revenue.
Why 13 Is the Floor
The 13-year-old minimum isn’t a YouTube rule so much as a Google rule that YouTube inherits. Every channel requires a Google Account, and Google blocks signup if the birth date entered is below the country’s minimum.1Google Account Help. Age Requirements on Google Accounts
The reason is the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which restricts online services from collecting personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent.2Federal Trade Commission. YouTube Channel Owners: Is Your Content Directed to Children? Rather than build a consent workflow for every under-13 signup, Google simply keeps them out.
Outside the U.S., the floor is often higher. South Korea sets it at 14, France and the Czech Republic at 15, and Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and more than a dozen other European countries at 16.1Google Account Help. Age Requirements on Google Accounts
What Kids Under 13 Can Do Instead
A child who’s too young for their own account still has legitimate ways onto YouTube, but a parent has to set them up.
Parent-Managed Google Accounts
A parent can create a Google Account for a child under 13 and manage it through Google Family Link.3Google For Families Help. Create a Google Account for Your Child Family Link gives the parent control over passwords, data settings, and which apps and services the child can use.4Google For Families Help. Manage Your Child’s Google Account with Family Link
On top of that, YouTube offers a supervised experience with three content tiers a parent picks based on the child’s maturity:
- Explore, aimed at viewers roughly 9 and older, with vlogs, tutorials, gaming, music, and educational content. Live streams aren’t available except for premieres.
- Explore More, aimed at viewers roughly 13 and older, covering the same categories with a larger library, live streams, and readable comments.
- Most of YouTube, which includes nearly everything on the platform except videos marked 18-plus, with comments visible.
Teens on the supervised experience get access to all of YouTube except age-restricted content.5YouTube. YouTube – More Choices for Kids, Tweens, and Teens from YouTube
YouTube Kids
YouTube Kids is a separate app built for children 12 and under.6YouTube. Age-Appropriate Media for Kids and Teens – How YouTube Works It’s more locked down than a supervised account on the main platform. Parents can filter content by age category, block searching entirely, and set screen time limits. The library is smaller than main YouTube, and the interface is built to be navigable by young children.
None of these options give the child their own channel. A child under 13 cannot upload videos as themselves in the U.S. — that has to wait until 13.
The 18 Wall for Age-Restricted Videos
Having your own account doesn’t unlock everything. Videos that YouTube flags as inappropriate for viewers under 18, either through creator self-labeling or YouTube’s review, require the viewer to be signed in and at least 18.7YouTube Help. Age-Restricted Content These videos also can’t be watched embedded on most third-party sites; the viewer gets redirected back to YouTube to sign in and verify age.
The 18 Wall for Making Money
The other hard cutoff at 18 is monetization. Even a 15-year-old with a big channel can’t collect ad revenue in their own name.
Partner Program Thresholds
Before age comes into play, a channel has to hit YouTube Partner Program numbers. The lower tier, which unlocks features like channel memberships and Super Chat, requires 500 subscribers, three public uploads, and either 3,000 public watch hours in the past 12 months or 3 million public Shorts views in the past 90 days. The higher tier, which unlocks ad revenue sharing, requires 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in the past 90 days.8YouTube. YouTube Partner Program: Eligibility, Benefits and Application
The Age Requirement on Top
After the numbers, the creator has to be at least 18 to join the Partner Program and link a Google AdSense account. Individual monetization features, including channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks, each independently require the creator to be 18.9Google Help. How to Earn Money on YouTube
There’s one workaround for creators under 18: a parent or guardian can sign the Partner Program agreement and link the channel to their own AdSense account. Payments then flow to the adult’s account.10Google AdSense Help. I Want to Monetize My Videos, but I Was Disapproved for Being Under 18 Tax reporting runs through the parent’s information as well, because the AdSense account is in the parent’s name.11Google AdSense Help. Age Requirement for an AdSense Account
A Note on “Made for Kids” Content
The age rules for creators are separate from the rules about what’s in the video. If a channel features children or targets a young audience, the creator (or the parent running the channel) has to label videos as “made for kids” under COPPA, and that label disables personalized ads, comments, channel memberships, and other features.12YouTube Help. Determining if Your Content Is Made for Kids Misclassifying content to avoid those restrictions can draw FTC enforcement, with civil penalties reaching $53,088 per violation as of the 2025 inflation adjustment.13Federal Trade Commission. FTC Publishes Inflation-Adjusted Civil Penalty Amounts for 2025 The label isn’t optional.
What Happens If a Kid Lies About Their Age
Faking a birth date to get past signup is a terms of service violation. YouTube can suspend or terminate any Google Account that materially breaches the agreement, and misrepresenting age qualifies.14YouTube. Terms of Service The platform can also flag accounts based on viewing behavior and other signals, so making it past signup isn’t the same as being safe.
A termination means losing access to the channel, uploaded videos, subscribers, and watch history. Terminated users can still watch public videos without signing in, but running a channel is over.14YouTube. Terms of Service Opening a replacement account is treated as another violation, and YouTube can terminate that one too.
Appeals exist, but there’s no guarantee of reinstatement, and appeals from users who really are underage rarely succeed. For a family with a child eager to create, a supervised account now and a real channel at 13 is the path that doesn’t end in a lost archive.