Your channel's live streaming ability may be temporarily or permanently turned off for various reasons. If your account has been restricted from live streaming, you're prohibited from using another channel to live stream on YouTube. This restriction applies for as long as it remains active on your account. Violation of this restriction is considered circumvention under our Terms of Service and may result in termination of your account.
Read below for a list of reasons why your channel's live streaming ability may have been temporarily or permanently turned off:
Age restrictions
As of July 22, 2025, you need to be at least 16 years old to live stream on YouTube.
Live streaming with an adult present
If you are under 16 and would like to participate in a live stream from an account owned by an adult, that adult must be visibly present in the live stream.
If you’re under 16 and an adult is willing to live stream with you, you can give the adult access to your channel as an editor, manager or owner. This allows the adult to start the live stream from your account while still reaching your audience through your own channel.
Live streaming best practices for minors
We encourage you to learn more about protecting yourself, or other minors in your content, and what not to post in our Child safety policy.
Here are some simple rules to follow to stay safe while you live stream:
- Keep your personal stuff private. You don't want to accidentally show or say things that tell people too much about you. Never share your full name, your age, where you live, what school you go to, or your phone number. Also, be careful about what's in the background of your stream. Don't show anything that could give away where you are, like your house number or a street sign outside your window.
- Use your privacy settings. You can manage your content’s privacy and embed settings to control who can view your video and how it’s shared on external sites. It's a good idea to go through these settings with a parent or a trusted adult. They can help you set them up the right way and make sure you're using them properly. Parents can also set up controls on your devices to help you out.
- Always have an adult nearby or aware. It's even better if they can be in the same room as you while you're streaming. If they can't be there, make sure they know who you're streaming with (if you're playing games with friends, for example) and how long you plan to be online. This way, if anything unexpected happens, there's an adult who knows what's going on and can help you right away.
- Moderate your live chat to keep it safe. YouTube moderation tools help you curate your Live stream experience to keep yourself and your viewers safe. Consider designating a trusted adult as a moderator to help filter out unwanted chats. Remember it's never okay for someone to make you feel uncomfortable. If anything like that happens, stop your stream immediately and tell a trusted adult right away.
- Keep it positive and fun. Avoid talking about private or sensitive stuff, getting into arguments, or using bad language. Remember, anything you say or do on a live stream may be seen by lots of people and can even be recorded. So, only share things you'd be totally fine with your parents, teachers, or even a future boss seeing.
Community Guidelines restrictions
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Your channel gets a Community Guidelines strike or a live stream was taken down under our policies.
- Your live stream matches another copyrighted live broadcast.
- Your live stream features minors. To better protect minors on YouTube, live streams with minors under 16 who are not visibly accompanied by an adult may be removed or have their live chat disabled. Channels not in compliance with this policy may temporarily or permanently lose their ability to live stream. You will receive an email notification if your live stream or your channel are restricted, including instructions on how to appeal if you believe we got it wrong.
- For channels that have a significant number of videos with features disabled, live streaming functionality may also be disabled. Check if your channel has any strikes and whether you currently have access to live streaming.
- If you suggest that you'll live stream content that violates our Community Guidelines, we may age-restrict the content, remove it, or turn off your channel's ability to live stream.
- We don’t allow live streams that show someone holding, handling, or transporting a firearm. Channels not in compliance with YouTube’s firearms policy will have the violative live stream removed and may permanently or temporarily lose their ability to live stream.
Copyright restrictions
- Your active live stream gets a copyright strike.
- Your live stream matches another copyrighted live broadcast.
“Made for kids” restrictions
If your channel or live stream’s audience is set as made for kids, some features will be turned off or restricted. Find a complete list of features affected by a “made for kids” audience setting.
Read below for a few examples:
Disabled features
- Live chat: Live chat, live chat replay, and Super Chat.
- Comments: Comments on live stream archives and upcoming streams.
- Reminder notifications: Reminder notifications for upcoming streams.
Restricted features
- Highlight videos: Highlight videos created from a source video set as made for kids will have the same restrictions as the original.
- Ads: Personalized ads will be disabled on live streams and Premieres. Contextual ads may be shown.
Other restrictions
If you've reached your daily limit for creating live streams, you can try again in 24 hours.
Ads
As a reminder—Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines and restrictions on Paid product placements and endorsements apply to live streams too.