YouTube prohibits all food and beverage ads next to kids content as of today

All food and beverage advertising in and around ‘Made for Kids’ content on YouTube Main will be prohibited as of today. This new YouTube Policy was announced in a letter sent on 13 December to US Senator Edward J. Markey. The restriction applies to all food and beverage products, irrespective of their nutritional profile, and will apply globally. Up until now, this restriction had only applied to YouTube Kids.

The new Made for Kids content classifier was created as a result of the recent FTC COPPA settlement. For existing content, YouTube will categorise content as Made for Kids based on criteria such as emphasis on kids characters, themes, toys or games and more. They will also incorporate content currently classified as Content Suitable for Families, which typically captures basic learning games (e.g. learning the alphabet), educational tutorials (e.g. science how-to videos) and cartoons/animations for younger audiences. New content will be classified through self-designation from the content creators. Machine learning will also be used, according to the official blogpost. 

This specific policy only covers paid-for ads (pre-rolls, mid-rolls, banners) - not product placement and endorsements in user-generated videos.  

WFA is engaging with YouTube to further clarify how Made for Kids content will be defined and what the impact on food and beverage advertisers will be.