YouTube Changes Rules on Violent Video Game Content

YouTube announced this week that it’s changing its policies that deal with videos centered on video games that also happen to include violent content. A summary of the changes indicates that there will be “fewer restrictions for violence in gaming” with videos containing that type of content able to be approved without needing to be restricted by an age gate. This change should come as welcome news for YouTubers who making gaming content considering how prevalent violence is in many games.

The change is in effect as of December 2nd, an update on YouTube’s policy page regarding this type of content said. YouTube said that it’ll be treating “scripted or simulated violent content found in video games” the same as it would treat other types of scripted content.

For gaming creators, a quick list of highlights detailing what this change means for them showed that there’d generally be less restrictions on gaming content that includes violence, though there are some instances where content could still be locked behind an age gate.

The rundown for how these changes will affect content creators can be seen below courtesy of YouTube’s policy guidelines.

New Policy’s Effect on Gaming Creators

• Future gaming uploads that include scripted or simulated violence may be approved instead of being age-restricted.
• There will be fewer restrictions for violence in gaming, but this policy will still maintain our high bar to protect audiences from real-world violence.
• We may still age-restrict content if violent or gory imagery is the sole focus of the video. For instance, if the video focuses entirely on the most graphically violent part of a video game.

An example of when the last of those points would be in effect would probably be a video about Mortal Kombat 11 or a similar game. Since those games are pretty much 100% violence with much of the focus being put on Fatalities where the players are brutally and cinematically dismembered, you can almost certainly expect an age gate to be put on one of those given the content.

YouTube’s updated policy doesn’t change anything related to the advertiser-friendly guidelines, the post from the YouTube team said.