How to Block YouTube Channels: Every Option YouTube Gives You
YouTube has no single block button for viewers. It has three tools that each do one part of the job, and picking the right one depends on whether the problem is your feed, your child's, or your comments.
How to block YouTube channels depends on what you want gone. For your own feed, tap the three-dot menu on one of the channel's videos and choose Don't recommend channel. For a child, a parent account can use Block channel for kids on a supervised account, or Block entire channel in YouTube Kids. A full viewer-side block doesn't exist.
That last point is what most people run into. YouTube doesn't offer an adult viewer a switch that makes a channel disappear everywhere, including search. What it offers is a set of narrower controls, each documented in YouTube Help as of October 2026, and used together they cover most of what people mean by blocking.
Blocking a channel on YouTube means one of three different things, and the platform treats them as separate features. The first is a recommendation signal: you tell YouTube to stop suggesting a channel to you. The second is a parental control: a parent stops a channel from playing on a child's supervised account or in YouTube Kids. The third is a person-to-person block: you stop seeing someone's messages in live chat and comments, and they stop seeing yours.
None of the three deletes anything or tells the channel. They change what you, or your child, are shown. That's worth keeping in mind from the other side too. A creator never sees a list of viewers who chose Don't recommend channel; what they see is the opposite signal, the people who opted in by subscribing, and the subscriber count on the channel page is the public version of that choice.
The sections below take each tool in turn, with the steps YouTube publishes for it.
Can you block a channel on YouTube?
Not in the sense of a single switch that hides a channel from every corner of YouTube for an adult viewer. What exists, according to YouTube Help:
- Don't recommend channel: stops the channel being suggested on pages like your Home feed and Watch Next.
- Block channel for kids: a parent account blocks a channel for a supervised child account.
- Block entire channel in YouTube Kids: blocks a channel inside the YouTube Kids app, behind a passcode.
- Block in live chat or from a mention: stops you seeing someone's live chat messages and comments, and stops their mentions reaching you.
How do I block a YouTube channel from my own recommendations?
On Home or Watch Next, find a video, Short or post from the channel, tap More (the three dots) next to the title and choose Don't recommend channel. YouTube describes it as the way to indicate you don't want a particular creator's content suggested to you. YouTube documents it as a recommendation control, not as a way to hide the channel from search.
What does 'don't recommend channel' do?
It's feedback, not a filter on the whole site. YouTube Help says Don't recommend channel signals that the channel's content likely isn't something you enjoyed, and it's used to decide what to stop suggesting. It sits alongside Not interested, which works on single videos and lets you say why.
In practice, the channel's videos should stop appearing on your Home feed and in the suggestions beside videos you watch. YouTube's help page doesn't describe it unsubscribing you, deleting watch history or blocking the channel from search, so treat it as a recommendation setting and nothing more.
If your whole feed has gone wrong, not just one channel, the broader fix is history, not channel by channel feedback. How to reset your YouTube algorithm covers pausing and clearing watch history in the right order.
Can you undo 'don't recommend channel'?
Yes, two ways. Right after you choose it, YouTube shows an Undo option for a few seconds. After that, YouTube Help points to My Activity: sign in at myactivity.google.com, open Other Google activity in the left-hand menu, find YouTube 'Not interested' feedback and select Delete.
That delete is all or nothing. It clears every Not interested and Don't recommend channel choice you've made, not one channel. If you only regret one, the gentler route is to search for the channel and watch or subscribe again, which gives YouTube a fresh positive signal.
How do you block a channel for kids?
On a supervised account, with your linked parent account. YouTube Help gives these steps on mobile: open the channel page, tap More, tap Block channel for kids, tap Continue on the warning, then tap Block next to the child. On a computer, the option sits under the channel's About section, behind the Report user icon.
YouTube adds a useful detail: if your child uses the same Google Account for YouTube and YouTube Kids, channels blocked on YouTube are blocked on YouTube Kids too. To undo one block, repeat the steps and choose Unblock. To clear all of them, go to Settings, then Family Center, select the child and use Unblock videos under general settings.
Blocking inside the YouTube Kids app
In YouTube Kids itself, open the video, tap More, tap Block, choose Block entire channel rather than Block this video, tap Block again and enter the numbers shown on screen or your custom passcode. The passcode step is what stops a child undoing it.
Does a blocked channel know?
No. None of these tools sends the channel a notice. Don't recommend channel is private feedback to YouTube's recommendations. Parental blocks change what a child's account can play. Blocking someone in live chat or from a mention changes what each of you sees of the other's messages, and YouTube's help page on blocking doesn't describe any alert to the other person.
From the creator's side, this is invisible in Studio. A channel can see subscribers gained and lost and how its videos perform in recommendations, but not who asked YouTube to stop showing it. A drop in suggested-video traffic can have many causes, and what an impression is on YouTube explains how those numbers are counted.
How do you block someone from commenting?
That's a creator tool rather than a viewer one, and it has its own rules. On your own channel, the More menu next to a comment has Hide user from channel, which stops that person's comments showing on your channel, and YouTube says they don't get a notification. As a viewer, you can block someone from a live chat message or a mention notification, and undo it later at myaccount.google.com/blocklist.
The full walkthrough, including where the hidden users list lives and how to reverse it, is in how to unblock someone on YouTube comments.
Which tool should you use?
Match the tool to the problem. A channel you're tired of seeing: Don't recommend channel. A channel you don't want your child watching: Block channel for kids on the supervised account, or Block entire channel in YouTube Kids. A person bothering you in chat or mentions: Block. A person leaving comments on your videos: Hide user from channel.
If you're on the creator side and wondering how viewers' choices add up, the signal that works in your favor is the subscribe button. Some channels add YouTube subscribers so a new channel doesn't sit at a near-empty count; that changes the number on the channel page, not what YouTube recommends to anyone. Every YouTube service is on the YouTube page.
Blocking channels on YouTube: quick answers
How do I block a YouTube channel from my feed?
Tap the three-dot menu next to one of the channel's videos on Home or Watch Next and choose Don't recommend channel. YouTube then stops suggesting that channel to you.
Can I completely block a YouTube channel as an adult viewer?
Not with one switch. As of October 2026, YouTube offers Don't recommend channel for your feed, parental blocks for supervised and YouTube Kids accounts, and blocking in live chat or mentions, but no site-wide block for adult viewers.
How do I undo Don't recommend channel on YouTube?
Tap Undo right away, or later go to myactivity.google.com, open Other Google activity, find YouTube 'Not interested' feedback and select Delete. That clears all such feedback at once.
How do I block a YouTube channel for my child?
From your linked parent account, open the channel page, tap More, then Block channel for kids, and choose Block next to your child. In the YouTube Kids app, use Block entire channel and enter the passcode.
Does a YouTube channel get notified when I block it?
No. Don't recommend channel and parental blocks are private, and YouTube's help pages on blocking and hiding users describe no notice to the other side.
How do I unblock someone I blocked in YouTube live chat?
Go to myaccount.google.com/blocklist while signed in and remove the person from the list. YouTube Help gives that address for undoing blocks made in live chat or from mentions.
Keep reading
- YouTube subscribers — Blocking is the viewer's opt-out; subscribing is the opt-in. YouTube subscribers adds to the count a new visitor sees on a channel.
- How to reset your YouTube algorithm — Pausing and clearing history when a whole feed has gone wrong.
- How to unblock someone on YouTube comments — The hidden users list and how to reverse a hide.
- How to turn off YouTube Shorts — What actually clears Shorts out of your recommendations.