How to Manage YouTube Video Comments for Enhanced Privacy

How to Turn on or off Comments on YouTube

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube comments are enabled by default, and if they aren’t, learning how to turn on comments on YouTube is extremely simple. One of the major benefits of having the comments enabled on your YouTube videos is that you get genuine feedback from your audiences.

As a brand, it is imperative to thoroughly read all the comments that your YouTube videos receive. This not only helps you do sentimental analysis; it also enables you to understand what the viewers expect from you, and where should you focus more while recording and editing your footage.

Keeping all these points in mind, the following sections explain how to enable comments on YouTube and how to turn off comments on YouTube. Here you will also get to know what other types of security and privacy options are there that you can use to filter the comments posted by the disturbing elements.

Part 1: How to Turn on or Turn off Comments for YouTube Channel

If you don’t want any comments on any of the videos that you publish, you must learn how to disable comments on the YouTube channel. The process of doing so is explained below:

Step 1: Get to YouTube Studio

Use your favorite web browser to go to YouTube and sign in to your Google account. Click your profile picture from the top-right corner of the webpage, and click YouTube Studio from the menu that appears.

Step 2: Go to Channel’s Advanced Settings

From the bottom of the left pane, click the Settings icon, click Channel from the Settings box that comes up next, and go to Advanced settings from the right window.

Step 3: Turn Off Comments

From the Audience section in the right pane itself, click to select the Yes, set this channel as made for kids. I always upload content that’s made for kids radio button. Click SAVE from the bottom-right corner to save the changes in order to turn off comments on all the videos on your YouTube channel.

To turn on comments on all the videos on your YouTube channel, you can follow the instructions given below:

1. Set Channel Videos as Not Made for Kids

Use the method explained above to get to the channel’s Advanced settings box. Select the No, set this channel as not made for kids. I never upload content that’s made for kids radio button. Click SAVE to save the changes.

2. Define Acceptable Comment Types

Click the Settings icon from the bottom of the left pane one more time. On the Settings box, go to the Upload defaults category from the left pane, and go to Advanced settings from the right. From the Comment visibility drop-down list under the Comments section in the right, choose your preferred comment allowance type, and click SAVE to allow the comments on the videos the channel has.

3. Set Comment Allowance for Videos

Back on the YouTube Studio page, click Content from the left pane. From the right section, check the Video box at the top of the list to select all the videos the channel has. Click Edit from the column header, and click Comments from the menu that comes up. From the New value drop-down list, choose your preferred allowance option for the comments, click UPDATE VIDEOS from the upper-right area, check the I understand the implications of this action box, and click UPDATE VIDEOS to allow comments on all the videos of the channel.

Additional Info about Comments Options

The four options that become available when you allow the comments on your YouTube channel along with their meaning are:

• Allow all comments

When you choose this option, YouTube allows everyone to post any kind of comment, irrespective of how inappropriate or unacceptable the text is.

• Hold potentially inappropriate comments for review

This option allows all the comments from all the users only if YouTube assumes that the text is safe, and doesn’t contain any inappropriate words. In case YouTube detects some objectionable content such as spam or slang, the comment is not published, until you review the text, and approve it manually.

• Hold all comments for review

Selecting this option holds all the comments from all the users, and waits for you to review and allow or disallow each of them manually.

• Disable comments

When this option is selected, no one can post a comment to the video(s) whatsoever.

Part 2: Turn on or Turn off Comments for Specific Videos

As you might have noticed, any video that is marked as ‘Made for kids’ doesn’t allow users to post comments. You can exploit this feature to enable or disable commenting on specific YouTube videos as well.

To learn how to turn on comments on YouTube for a specific video, you can follow the steps given below:

Step 1: Go to the Content Page

Use the method explained earlier to go to YouTube Studio, and click Content from the navigation bar in the left.

Step 2: Go to the Target Video’s Details Page

Hover the mouse over the target video in the right window, and click the Details icon.

Step 3: Turn on Comments

From under the Audience section in the right window of the Video details page, select the No, it’s not made for kids radio button. Next, click SHOW MORE, scroll down to the Comments and ratings section, and choose your preferred privacy option from the Comment visibility drop-down list. Click SAVE from the upper-right area to save the changes.

Note: To learn how to disable comments on YouTube for specific video, you can repeat the above steps, and choose the Yes, it’s made for kids radio button from the Audience section when you are on the Video details page.

FAQs About YouTube Comments

1. Why can’t I comment on the YouTube video?

There could be several reasons for this. For instance, the video or the entire channel is configured as ‘Made for kids’ by the owner, comments are disabled for the video or the channel by the owner, you are using some inappropriate words in the comment that have been temporarily blocked by YouTube, and the text requires to be reviewed and approved by the owner before it becomes visible, etc.

2. I want people to comment on my Private video. What should I do?

At the time of this writing, YouTube doesn’t allow anyone to post a comment on any video that has been set as ‘Private’. If your video is configured that way, you must change its nature to ‘Unlisted’, and share its link to the users before they can post a comment.

3. How can I block certain words and links on the YouTube comments?

You can go to YouTube Studio > Settings > Community, and on the Automated Filters tab in the right window, add the words to block in the Blocked words field. You can add multiple words by separating them with commas. To block the comments with links, check the Block links box. Click SAVE to save the changes.

4. If I turn comments off and back on again, will the old comments come back?

Yes. When you turn off the comments, the existing comments disappear. When you turn them back on, all the previous comments reappear, and become visible to the audience.

5. If I change my comment settings, will the existing comments be impacted?

That depends on the nature of the comments. For instance, if you modify the settings, the changes are reflected on the comments posted on the new videos, and the new comments on your channel homepage. However, there will be no impact on the existing comments on the existing videos, new comments on the existing videos, and the existing comments on your channel’s homepage.

Conclusion

It is easy to understand how to turn on comments on YouTube. The best thing is, the comments are enabled by default, and if you don’t need them, you can simply disable them by configuring the videos or the entire channel as ‘Made for kids’. If the comments on any video were enabled previously, and are disabled later on, the existing comments automatically disappear. They reappear when the comments on the video are reenabled.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Video Content Creation Evolution: Choosing Studio Over Beta

YouTube Creator Studio vs. YouTube Studio (Beta): Which One is Better?

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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In 2017, YouTube revealed YouTube Studio Beta , a video management and analytics dashboard that will replace the classic Creator Studio that most YouTubers are familiar with by 2021.

In this article, we will look at the new features YouTube Studio Beta has, what we can expect from it in the future, and why YouTube will eventually phase out the older YouTube Creator Studio… and whether that change will be an improvement.

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Why YouTube Is Getting Rid of Classic Creator Studio?

Data-driven YouTubers have long loved the YouTube Creator Studio. It has supplied so much information that it took this comprehensive post about Analytics to highlight all the insights. So why would YouTube change it?

Change to a popular social media platform is always worrisome to content creators because it means there will be a new learning phase forced upon them. While the Classic YouTube Creator Studio has a lot of features and functionality, the data was often hard to interpret and inconvenient to find. Many creators weren’t sure where their data was located or how to use the information presented to them.

YouTube Studio was designed to be a friendly management and analysis tool. YouTube also offers more guidance, showcasing the key metrics the algorithm uses to evaluate the success of a video more prominently. Additionally, the graphs presented offer more clarity, shortening the time a creator spends finding the information they need.

Undoubtedly, YouTube updated its Creator Studio to offer a tool that enables its users to better understand their video performance and make better content that serves YouTube’s requirements.

Intro to YouTube Studio (Beta)

YouTube Studio (Beta), for many YouTubers, is now the default. However, for the time being, creators can still switch back to the Classic view (as some of the features are still being built). YouTube’s objective is to receive data of their own by understanding how creators are using the new Studio and gaining feedback to improve upon it.

If you have any feedback, simply click on this button on the bottom left menu of the YouTube Studio (Beta) and send YouTube your thoughts.

In addition to the new layout of the tools and dashboards, YouTube Studio (Beta) will also debut 3 metrics for creators:

1. Impressions: See the total reach of all your videos or each individual video. Each time your video thumbnail and title are visible to the user counts as an impression.

2. Click-through rate: Determine how click-worthy your thumbnails and titles are, by seeing the percentage of people who click into your video.

3. Unique viewers: Know how many different people have watched your videos. This data can be used to compare the size of your subscriber base to the actual number of your audience.

Tips for Using YouTube Studio Beta Features

Now that you are more familiar with the new YouTube Studio (Beta), let us dive into what you can accomplish with all the new features.

1. Optimization Tips

In the past, there has been a lot of speculations about how creators should treat their video titles and descriptions. Well, now YouTube is letting you know exactly which area to focus on. Simply hover over any “?” icon to see the advice and click “Learn More” to go to YouTube Creator Academy to get more details.

2. Recent Video Data

See data and improvement tips for your latest video. If YouTube identifies a notable issue with your video, they will help you by offering tips, which you can click “Tell Me More” to look into.

YouTube wants you to know how your videos are performing in the first few days. In order for YouTube to determine whether your content is worth sharing, it wants to know how your audience is responding to it right away. This means, the launch of your video matters.

3. Video Analysis

In the Classic Creator Studio, you couldn’t get an aggregated view of all the important video data on one dashboard. You would have to click to each set of analytics individually and then dive deeper. This ate up your precious content creation time and made it hard to combine insights. Now with Studio Beta, you can see all the critical data in one spot. Right away, you can see how that video is performing through different factors. This will let you know where audience retention is dropping off or which traffic source is supplying most of the views.

4. Watch Time Funnel

The objective is to increase watch time, the metric YouTube puts the most weight on. With the new Watch Time Funnel, which you can find in the Analytics section under the Reach Viewer dashboard, you can see exactly at which level of your channel or wherein an individual video you will need to improve.

If the impression numbers are low, that means you need to improve how your video is being discovered by doing more research to understand what your viewers are searching for.

If the click-through rate (CTR) is low, then you will have to improve your thumbnail and title. This will better entice your audience to click. According to Google, half of all videos have an average CTR of 2-10%.

If the average view duration is not up to your standards, then you will have to improve your content itself. While it is most ideal to have all your viewers watch all the way to the end of all your videos, that is certainly unrealistic. However, 60-70% is a great number to aim towards.

5. Traffic Sources

YouTube now presents all the different traffic sources in one easy-to-find page in the Reach Viewer tab, so creators no longer have to click between them to analyze where their traffic is coming from. This new design is far less intimidating and messy. At a glance, you can now see where the majority of your audiences are coming from.

YouTube has always put a lot of value into its analytic tools, and with YouTube Studio Beta the features and design are continuously improving. Having better data and understanding of how an individual video or an entire channel is performing will help creators succeed on this ever more competitive platform.

Have you tried the new YouTube Studio (Beta)? What are your thoughts? Please let us know in the comments below.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett