Learning how to block YouTube channels means using YouTube's built-in tools — "Don't recommend channel" on main YouTube, per-channel blocking in YouTube Kids, and content settings in supervised accounts — to keep specific creators away from your kid. Each tool works, but each one blocks something different, and none of them blocks everything.
Quick answer: On main YouTube, tap the three-dot menu on any video and choose "Don't recommend channel" to remove that channel from recommendations. In YouTube Kids, open a video from the channel, tap the three-dot menu, and choose "Block this channel." Neither method stops a determined kid from finding the channel through search or a direct link — for a true lockdown, you need an allowlist-only viewer where only channels you approve exist at all.
How do you block a channel on the main YouTube app?
Main YouTube doesn't have a true "block" for channels. What it has is a recommendation filter, and it takes about five seconds to use:
- Find a video from the channel — on your home feed, in search results, or on the watch page.
- Tap the three-dot menu on the video.
- Choose Don't recommend channel.
From that point, YouTube stops suggesting the channel's videos in your home feed and recommendations on that account. Do this on your kid's account or profile, not your own — the setting follows the signed-in account.
Here's the honest limitation: "Don't recommend channel" only shapes recommendations. Your kid can still search for the channel by name, open a direct link a friend sends, or land on it from a Short. It's a "show me less of this" button, not a wall. It's still worth using — it cleans up the feed fast — but don't mistake it for a block.
You can also block a channel's ability to interact with you (useful against creepy commenters), but since comments are the main risk there, a viewer with no comments at all sidesteps the problem entirely.
How do you block channels on YouTube Kids?
YouTube Kids has real per-channel blocking, and it's the strongest native option for younger kids:
- Sign in to YouTube Kids as the parent (you'll need your account connected to your kid's profile).
- Find a video from the channel you want gone.
- Tap the three-dot menu on the video.
- Choose Block this channel (or block just the single video).
Blocked channels disappear from that kid's profile — search, recommendations, everything. You can review and unblock channels later from the parental settings.
Two caveats. First, blocks apply per kid profile, so if you have three kids you're managing three blocklists. Second, YouTube Kids' catalog is filtered by an algorithm, and content that shouldn't be there still slips through — which is why the block button exists in the first place. You're always blocking after your kid has already seen something.
YouTube Kids also has an "Approved content only" mode where you hand-pick channels and collections. It's the closest native thing to an allowlist, but it disables search, is aimed at preschool-age content, and many popular kid-appropriate channels aren't available in the YouTube Kids catalog at all. Most families outgrow it around age 7 or 8.
Can you block channels on a supervised Google account?
If your kid uses main YouTube through a supervised experience (set up in Google Family Link), you pick a content level — roughly "younger," "older," and "most of YouTube" tiers — and YouTube filters accordingly. You can also block specific channels from your kid's watch history in the Family Link parent tools.
Supervised accounts are a genuine step up from an unsupervised teen account: comments are limited, some features are disabled, and the content tiers screen out a lot. But the tiers are broad algorithmic buckets, not your judgment. A channel you'd never approve can sit comfortably inside "Explore" because nothing in it technically violates the tier's rules. And blocking is still one channel at a time, after the fact.
For the full setup walkthrough on supervised accounts and Family Link, see our guide to YouTube parental controls.
Does Restricted Mode block channels?
No. Restricted Mode is a device- or account-level filter that hides videos flagged as mature. It doesn't target channels at all — it can't remove a specific creator, and plenty of content you'd object to passes its filter because the filter looks for age-restricted material, not annoying, brain-rot, or subtly inappropriate material.
Restricted Mode is worth turning on as a baseline layer, especially on shared devices and school networks. Just know what it is: a coarse filter, not a channel tool. We cover where it helps and where it fails in our YouTube Restricted Mode guide.
What does each blocking method actually block?
| Method | What it actually blocks | Where it applies | Can kid still reach the channel? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Don't recommend channel | Recommendations only | Main YouTube, per account | Yes — via search or direct link |
| YouTube Kids channel block | The whole channel, including search | YouTube Kids, per kid profile | No, within YouTube Kids — but only channels you've already found and blocked |
| Restricted Mode | Videos flagged as mature | Per browser/app/account | Yes — it doesn't target channels |
| Supervised account (Family Link) | Content outside the chosen tier, plus channels you block | Main YouTube for supervised kids | Yes, anything inside the tier you haven't blocked yet |
| Allowlist-only viewer (UTubeParents) | Everything except channels you approved | Wherever your kid watches through it | No — unapproved channels don't appear at all |
Why blocking channels never quite works: the blocklist treadmill
Here's the pattern every parent hits. You block a channel. The algorithm serves up three near-identical channels the next day. You block those. Your kid's feed mutates again. YouTube hosts tens of millions of channels and the recommendation engine's job is to keep filling the gap you just created.
We call this the blocklist treadmill: you can block forever and never be done, because blocking is reactive by design. Every block happens after your kid has already watched something you didn't want them to see. You're not preventing exposure — you're responding to it, one channel at a time, forever.
The math only runs one direction. A blocklist has to name every bad channel, and the supply of bad channels is effectively infinite. An allowlist only has to name the good ones — and that's a list you can actually finish.
What's the alternative to blocking? Approve channels instead
Flip the model: instead of deciding what's forbidden, decide what's allowed. Your kid sees only the channels you've approved — nothing else exists in their app. No search results from strangers, no recommended rabbit holes, no comments. That's the one thing YouTube's native controls and YouTube Kids (past the preschool tier) can't give you.
This is what UTubeParents does. It's a free early-access kid-safe YouTube viewer: you build a per-kid allowlist of approved channels, and your kid is locked to only those channels behind a PIN-locked kid mode. Videos play through the official YouTube embed, so creators still get their views. You also get per-child daily screen-time limits enforced server-side — when time is up, the player stops, no negotiating with the tablet — plus watch history with one-tap blocking if an approved channel goes downhill.
You step off the treadmill: instead of maintaining an endless blocklist, you maintain a short list of channels you actually trust. Get started free.
Should you still use the native blocking tools?
Yes — layers help, and the native tools are free and fast. A sensible stack: use "Don't recommend channel" aggressively to clean up feeds on any account your kid touches, set up a supervised account or YouTube Kids depending on age, turn on Restricted Mode on shared devices, and use an allowlist viewer for unsupervised watching time. For how all the layers fit together, read our complete guide to restricting YouTube for kids.
Bottom line: You can block a YouTube channel today — "Don't recommend channel" on main YouTube, "Block this channel" in YouTube Kids, tier settings plus per-channel blocks on supervised accounts — and you should use those tools. But blocking is a treadmill: reactive, one channel at a time, against an endless supply. If you want your kid watching only channels you've approved, that requires an allowlist model, and UTubeParents is built for exactly that.