Borderline thumbnail: removed or video age-restricted
YouTube may show the video only to adults.
Last verified
What triggers it
Thumbnail that is not a clear violation but is not for all audiences: breasts, buttocks or genitals as the focal point, a pose or clothing meant to arouse, violent or gory imagery as the focal point, text meant to be vulgar or to shock or disgust, or title or tags signalling intent to shock.
What YouTube says
“When that happens, we may age-restrict the video, or we may remove the thumbnail, but we don’t issue a strike on your channel.”
We last checked this against YouTube's page on .
How to fix it
Crop or reframe so no body part or gore is the focal point and remove shock wording from thumbnail text.
Good to know
Close crops on cleavage, buttocks or crotch, arousing poses, blood or injury as the main subject, and shock text ('DISGUSTING', 'GRAPHIC') trigger this. A person in normal clothing or swimwear not cropped to body parts does not.
Can FYProof spot it?
A full check of your video looks for it in what's shown, the words on screen and the caption. What a check finds is an estimate, not a guarantee.
- Video: looked at for this rule
- Speech: not for this rule
- On-screen text: looked at for this rule
- Caption: looked at for this rule
- Hashtags: not for this rule
Related YouTube rules
Platforms change their rules often. This page sums up what YouTube publishes; it isn't legal advice.