KidWatchHow to hide YouTube comments from your child
Start with the disappointing part: YouTube gives viewers no switch that simply turns comments off. Four things do work, to different degrees, and it is worth knowing exactly which.
Parents usually arrive at this question the same way. The video was fine. The child was watching something about Minecraft, or a song, or someone opening toys. Then they scrolled down.
There is a structural reason comment sections are the weak point. A video passes through YouTube's rules and a lot of automated review before it reaches any scale. A comment is published the instant someone types it, and is only removed afterwards if it is reported or caught. So on an otherwise unremarkable children's video, the comments are the one part of the page that nobody checked before your child read it.
Here is what is actually available, strongest first.
1. YouTube Kids — no comments at all
The YouTube Kids app does not render comment sections anywhere. Not hidden, not collapsed: they are not part of the app. For a child under roughly eight this is the cleanest answer available and it is free.
The reason it is not the end of the article is that YouTube Kids is a different, much smaller catalogue, and the moment a child works out that their friends are watching things that are not in it, the app tends to get abandoned. If your child has already outgrown it, skip to the next option — we wrote about that transition in what to use when a child outgrows YouTube Kids.
2. Restricted Mode — the real answer for standard YouTube
Restricted Mode is YouTube's opt-in content filter, and hiding comment sections is one of the things it does. It is the closest thing to a comments-off switch that exists for a viewer.
On the iPhone or iPad app
- Open YouTube and tap your profile picture, top right.
- Tap Settings, then General.
- Turn Restricted Mode on.
On the web
- Click the profile picture in the top right.
- Open Restricted Mode near the bottom of the menu.
- Switch it on. It is saved to that browser, so it must be repeated in every browser the child uses.
Two things to understand before you rely on it. First, Restricted Mode is per surface — per app, per browser, per device. Setting it on your phone does nothing for their tablet. Second, it filters videos as well as comments, and it is blunt about it: it removes a fair amount of ordinary material, including news, health and history content that a ten-year-old might legitimately be looking for homework help with. Some families find that trade acceptable and some find it maddening within a week.
And it is not locked. The toggle sits in normal settings with no PIN, so assume an older child can find it.
3. A supervised Google account — the only version a child cannot undo
If your child has their own Google account created through Family Link, you choose a YouTube content setting for them from your own account, and they cannot change it. On the more restrictive supervised settings, comments are not shown.
This is the only common setup where the protection is genuinely locked rather than merely switched on. The cost is that it is a whole-account commitment — you are managing their Google identity, not just YouTube — and it takes an evening to set up properly rather than thirty seconds.
4. Browser-level blocking — works, but only on one surface
On a computer, a content blocker or a custom filter rule can strip the comments container out of youtube.com entirely. On iOS, Safari content blockers can do something similar.
Be realistic about what this buys you. It applies to that one browser on that one device, and not to the YouTube app, which is where most children actually watch. If the child watches in the app — and they almost certainly do — this fixes nothing. We mention it because it comes up in search results as though it were a general solution, and it is not.
What each option really covers
| Method | Hides comments | Child can undo it | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube Kids | Completely — no comments in the app | No | Free |
| Restricted Mode | Yes, while it is on | Yes, one tap | Free |
| Supervised account (Family Link) | Yes, on stricter settings | No | Free, but a full account setup |
| Browser content blocker | Yes, in that browser only | Depends on the device | Free |
The part no comment setting fixes
It is worth saying plainly, because most guides on this query stop before it: hiding comments removes one surface. It does not touch the video.
A child with comments hidden can still be shown a video that is frightening, in a language they do not speak, or one of the enormous volume of low-quality synthetic children's content that now floods the platform. Restricted Mode catches some of that, being a video filter as well, but it works from flags and signals rather than from anything about your particular child — it has no idea whether your six-year-old should be watching a given clip.
So if the comments were the thing that alarmed you, do step 1 or 2 today and you have genuinely fixed it. If what actually alarmed you was the whole session, comments are only the first of several things to deal with. Turning autoplay off is the next one, and it is a bigger win than this one.
Where KidWatch fits
KidWatch is our iPhone app, so read this as interested rather than neutral — and please do the free steps above first, because for many families they are enough on their own.
Inside KidWatch the child browses the real youtube.com, but the comment sections are hidden as a matter of course, so it is not a setting anyone can toggle back. The part the options above cannot do is the video itself: each one is read by AI before it plays, checking the spoken language, whether it suits your child's actual age, and whether it looks like mass-produced synthetic content. Anything that fails does not play, and the parent dashboard shows you what was blocked and why. Daily limits and a bedtime cut-off are included.
It does not catch everything. Nothing does.
View KidWatch on the App Store
Free to download, with a 7-day free trial. KidWatch Premium is then an auto-renewable monthly subscription; the price is shown in the app before you confirm, and it renews until cancelled in Settings › Apple ID › Subscriptions.
Common questions
Is there a hidden setting that just turns comments off?
No. Creators can disable comments on videos they own, and that is the only real "comments off" control YouTube has. As a viewer you are choosing between Restricted Mode, YouTube Kids, a supervised account, or blocking them at the browser.
Does Restricted Mode hide comments on Shorts too?
Restricted Mode applies to the Shorts feed as a content filter, but Shorts are a fast-moving surface and the safest assumption is that it is less thorough there than on standard videos. If Shorts are where your child spends their time, treat comment settings as a partial measure and look at limiting Shorts directly.
My child watches signed out. Does Restricted Mode still work?
Yes — signed out it attaches to the device or browser rather than an account, which is arguably more useful here, since it then applies no matter who is or is not logged in on that device.
Should I read the comments myself instead?
On a channel your child watches repeatedly, once, yes — it tells you a lot about the audience a creator actually has, which is often not the audience their videos appear to be for. As an ongoing strategy it does not scale past a couple of channels.
At what age should I stop hiding comments?
There is no clean number, and anyone offering one is guessing. The more useful marker is whether your child will tell you when they see something that upsets them. Until that is reliably true, hiding the comments is doing work that a conversation cannot yet do.