A channel’s comment section is part of its public face. For creators it is also where praise, questions, spam and abuse arrive in the same stream. YouTube documents a set of tools that let a creator decide which comments are shown, which are held back for review and which users are hidden altogether. This guide summarises those tools as described in YouTube’s Help Centre, in plain terms, so that creators and the people who work with them know what each setting does and what it does not do. Platform tools change often, so the Help pages are the final word.
Why does comment moderation matter for creators?
Comments sit under every video, so they can shape how a viewer experiences a channel and how a community behaves. Our guide to who works behind a creator describes the community managers, moderators and editors who often handle this work, and notes that on YouTube a channel owner can give others access through permissions. Moderation is therefore both a safety question and a workflow question: who sees comments first, and who decides what stays.
YouTube’s own pages are practical rather than philosophical. They explain how to hold some comments before they are shown, how to limit who can comment and how to hide users. They also point creators to its Creator Safety Center for guidance on when to report abuse, harassment, inappropriate content or privacy concerns.
What comment settings can be chosen for a video?
YouTube says a creator can choose to turn comments on, pause them or turn them off for a specific video.
- On. Comments appear, and the creator can choose whether any are held for review.
- Pause. Existing comments are kept, but no new ones arrive until comments are turned back on. YouTube suggests a reason: a creator may want more time to review a sudden increase in comments.
- Off. Viewers cannot comment and see a message saying comments have been turned off. YouTube’s FAQ says that if comments are turned off and back on again, the existing comments reappear.
When comments are on, the Help page lists four levels of “comment moderation”:
| Level | What YouTube says it does |
|---|---|
| None | Does not hold any comments |
| Basic | Holds potentially inappropriate comments |
| Strict | Holds a broader range of potentially inappropriate comments |
| Hold all | Holds all comments |
Held comments are kept in YouTube Studio for up to 60 days, are not public unless the creator approves them and are available for review in over 100 languages, according to the page.
A creator can also limit who can comment to subscribers and paid channel members. YouTube’s page says a minimum subscription time can be set, with options of any duration, one hour, one day or one week. The same page notes that this setting is not available at the channel level, and that it can be applied to several videos at once through bulk edits.
How do blocked words and blocked links work?
At channel level, YouTube lets a creator keep lists of words and phrases that should not appear in comments. The Help page says comments containing or closely matching those terms may be held for up to 60 days, unless they come from someone on the creator’s approved user list. Live chat messages containing or closely matching the terms are also blocked, and the blocked words cannot be used when creating clips of videos and live streams.
Comments that contain URLs can be held too. YouTube says links are not blocked when they are posted by the creator, by moderators or by approved users. Live chat messages containing URLs are blocked, and comments with hashtags and links can be reviewed and approved under the “Held” tab for up to 60 days.
Two practical details come from the FAQ:
- Reviewing held items. Comments blocked for words or links can be reviewed and approved on the Comments page under the “Held” tab.
- Scope. Hidden users, blocked words and link blocking apply to all videos and to the channel homepage. The FAQ says it is not possible to block certain words, links or users on one specific video only.
What is the difference between hidden users and approved users?
These two channel-level lists work in opposite directions.
Hidden users. A creator can hide comments from specific commenters across all videos. According to YouTube’s page on hiding users, hiding a user and their associated accounts means certain activity is not visible on the channel, including comments, live chats and community posts. Hidden users and their associated accounts also cannot create clips from the creator’s videos and live streams. The page lists some limits to keep in mind:
- the hidden person is not notified;
- past activity from associated accounts is not hidden;
- past comments from hidden users do not show on the Comments page in YouTube Studio.
A user can be hidden from a comment by selecting “More” and then “Hide from channel”, or by pasting the person’s channel address into the “Hidden users” box under Community moderation and User management in YouTube Studio. A user can be unhidden by removing them from the same list.
Approved users. The Help page says comments from approved users are automatically published and are not filtered for blocked links, blocked words or potentially inappropriate content. Approved users can also send messages in live chat when live commentary participant mode is on. This list suits trusted moderators and long-standing members of the community.
How does YouTube handle spam in comments?
YouTube’s page on spam describes a combined moderation view. It says the “Held for review” and “Likely spam” tabs in YouTube Studio have been merged, so comments automatically held by YouTube appear in one “Held for review” tab for up to 60 days.
The page explains the following:
- Reporting. Anyone can report a comment as spam from the comment menu, using the option for unwanted commercial content or spam. Creators can also report spam while reviewing comments in YouTube Studio.
- What spam is. YouTube describes spam as content that creates a negative experience by making it difficult to find more relevant material, and says it can be used to send unsolicited bulk messages. It says spam can be detected from the text of a comment or from the behaviour of a commenter, such as repeatedly posting.
- What a creator can do. In the “Held” tab a creator can approve comments, remove them, report them for spam or abuse or hide users from the channel.
- Caution. The page says a report as spam cannot be undone, and that misuse of the feature may lead to a person being prohibited from using YouTube.
What happens to old comments when settings change?
YouTube’s FAQ explains that changes to channel-level settings, video-level settings, blocked words, hidden users and blocked links apply to future comments. Existing comments are affected only in two cases:
- When comments are turned off on a video. Existing comments cannot be seen on the watch page or in YouTube Studio until comments are turned back on.
- When a user is hidden. The comments that person has made do not show on any of the creator’s videos.
Creators can also apply one comment setting to every new upload as a default. The page says changing the default affects new uploads and not existing videos, and that settings can be changed for individual videos after upload.
How can a team share the work?
Moderation is easier when several people can help. YouTube’s pages refer to moderators and approved users as roles in this system, and the permissions system on the platform is described in our guide to who works behind a creator. A few practical questions for a channel team to settle:
- who reviews the “Held for review” tab, and how often;
- who may approve or remove comments;
- which words and links belong on the blocked lists, and who updates them;
- when to hide a user rather than only remove a comment;
- how to escalate threats or harassment to the platform’s reporting tools.
YouTube’s pages do not decide those questions for a channel; they only describe the tools. A written note of the team’s rules can help new moderators act consistently. Sponsored posts bring their own labelling duties, which are covered in our explainer on influencer disclosure.
What are the limits of these tools?
The Help pages describe the tools, not their results, and several limits are visible in the text itself:
- Comments from hidden users do not appear in YouTube Studio, so a creator cannot go back and review them there. Hidden users are also not notified.
- Past activity from a hidden person’s associated accounts is not hidden.
- Blocked words match terms “or closely matching” them, so a creator should review what is held rather than assume every held item is abusive.
- Held comments are kept for up to 60 days, so a backlog can expire if nobody reviews it.
- Tools on one platform do not apply to another; each service has its own settings and Help pages.
This article summarises YouTube’s published Help pages as read on 13 October 2026, for general information. Features, menu names and time limits change; check the current Help Centre. It is not safety, legal or professional advice.
Sources: YouTube Help (Learn about comment settings); YouTube Help (Hide or unhide users from your channel); YouTube Help (Manage spam in comments); YouTube Help (Permissions for channel roles)
