To turn off YouTube comments for kids is to remove the public comment feed from the videos your child watches, so they never scroll past the video into what strangers wrote underneath it. Here is the uncomfortable truth up front: regular YouTube has no viewer-side switch for this. There is no setting in your child's account, your account, or the app that says "hide comments." Everything parents can do is indirect.
Quick answer: You cannot directly disable comments on regular YouTube as a viewer. You can hide them indirectly with Restricted Mode, avoid them by using YouTube Kids or a supervised experience, or rely on the fact that made-for-kids videos have comments turned off by the platform. The only complete fix is watching through a player that has no comment section at all, which is what a dedicated kid viewer like UTubeParents does.
Why are comments the worst part of YouTube for kids?
The videos your kid watches might be fine. The comments under them are a different product. They are unmoderated in practice, written by strangers, and sorted to surface whatever gets reactions. That includes profanity, insults, adult jokes, spam links, and arguments.
Comments also sit one thumb-scroll below the video. A seven-year-old watching a Minecraft video does not decide to read comments. The layout hands them over. That is why "youtube comments kids safety" is a real search, and why creators aimed at children often disable comments themselves.
One more problem: comments teach kids to reply. A child who can read comments is one tap away from posting into a public feed. Hiding the feed removes both risks at once.
Is there a setting to turn off YouTube comments?
Not for viewers. Comment controls in YouTube belong to the person who uploaded the video. A creator can hold comments for review, limit them, or turn them off on their own uploads. That is useful if you run a channel, but it does nothing for the millions of videos your child might open.
So every parent-side option is a workaround. The table below maps where comments actually show up.
| Viewing context | Are comments visible? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Regular YouTube (app or web) | Yes | No viewer setting exists to hide them. |
| Regular YouTube with Restricted Mode on | No | Comments are hidden as a side effect. Restricted Mode is per browser or per device and easy to toggle off. |
| YouTube Kids | No | There is no public comment section in the app. |
| Supervised experience (Family Link) | Limited or none | Younger content settings restrict comments; behavior depends on the tier you pick. |
| Made-for-kids videos on regular YouTube | No | Comments are disabled by the platform on this content, but the label depends on the creator classifying the video correctly. |
| UTubeParents kid mode | No | The player shows only the video. There is no comment section to hide. |
Does Restricted Mode hide YouTube comments?
Yes, and it is the closest thing regular YouTube has to a hide-comments switch. When Restricted Mode is on, YouTube hides the comment section under videos in addition to filtering some mature content. Turn it on in the account or app settings on each device your child uses.
Know its limits before you rely on it. Restricted Mode is set per browser and per device, so a kid who opens a different browser, another profile, or a friend's tablet is back to full comments. It is also just a toggle in the settings menu unless you lock it, and older kids find it fast. Treat it as a speed bump, not a wall. For the fuller picture of what it does and does not filter, see our guide to how to restrict YouTube for kids.
Does YouTube Kids have comments?
No. YouTube Kids has no public comment section, which quietly solves this whole problem for younger children. If your kid is happy in YouTube Kids, comments are off the table.
The catch is that many kids age out of it. The catalog skews young, and by seven or eight a lot of children want the "real" YouTube their friends use. The moment they move to the main app, comments come back, along with autoplay rabbit holes and Shorts. If Shorts are your bigger headache, we cover that separately in how to block YouTube Shorts.
What about supervised accounts and Family Link?
Google's supervised experience lets a child use the main YouTube app under content settings you choose through Family Link. On the younger settings, comments are restricted. It is a reasonable middle step between YouTube Kids and a fully open account.
The tradeoff is that supervision controls broad content tiers, not specific channels or features one by one. As you loosen the tier for an older kid, more of regular YouTube comes back with it. Comment behavior follows the tier you picked rather than a dedicated comments switch you control. Our overview of YouTube parental controls walks through each tier and what it actually changes.
Why do some regular YouTube videos have no comments?
If you have noticed that videos aimed at children often say comments are turned off, that is not the creator being cautious. It is a platform rule. After U.S. children's privacy regulation (COPPA) pressure, YouTube began disabling comments on content designated as made for kids.
This helps, but do not build your plan on it. The protection depends on the video being classified as made for kids, and plenty of content children actually watch is not: gaming videos, family vlogs, music, sports clips. Those keep their full comment sections. Your kid's watch history almost certainly crosses back and forth between the two.
How do kids watch YouTube with no comments at all?
Every option above hides comments in some places and leaves them in others, or depends on a toggle staying toggled. The clean answer is to change the player, not chase settings: use a viewer that never renders a comment section.
That is how UTubeParents works. It is a free (early access) kid-safe YouTube viewer. In kid mode, the player shows only the video. No comments, no reply box, nothing to scroll into and nothing for your kid to switch back on.
Comments are also just one part of the problem, so the same setup covers the rest:
- A channel allowlist you approve. Kids can be locked to only the channels you have approved, so the videos themselves are ones you have signed off on.
- Per-child screen-time limits, enforced server-side. When time is up, the player stops. No negotiating with the tablet.
- Watch history with one-tap blocking. See what they watched and block a channel the moment it earns it.
- PIN-locked kid mode. Your kid cannot back out into settings or the open web.
Setup takes a few minutes: create an account, add your kids, approve some channels. Get started free.
Should I still teach my kid about comments?
Yes. Hiding comments is the right move for young kids, but at some point your child will use regular YouTube on a device you do not control. Before then, they should know that comment sections are public, that strangers write them, and that nothing they post there is private.
A simple house rule works: watching is fine, reading and posting comments is not, and they tell you if something in a video or feed bothers them. Layer the technical controls on top of that conversation, not instead of it.
Bottom line: There is no real way to turn off YouTube comments for kids inside regular YouTube — only side effects like Restricted Mode, the comment-free YouTube Kids app, supervised tiers, and platform-disabled comments on made-for-kids videos, each with gaps. If you want zero comments every time, use a player that never shows them. UTubeParents' kid mode shows just the video, with your approved channels and time limits behind it.