YouTube believes in giving second chances to those who deserve it.
The video-sharing platform recently announced that YouTube creators violating community guidelines could attend classes about it to avoid getting a strike on their channel.
YouTube is now implementing this variation on its existing strike system.
Class Is Back In Session
YouTube mentioned in its announcement that it is giving community guideline violators an educational training course to let them learn more about what to avoid in their content to prevent getting a strike.
According to the announcement, YouTube believes that educational efforts successfully reduce the number of creators unintentionally violating its policies. This statement is evidenced by the one-time warning it gives for a first policy violation in 2019 - more than 80% of creators who receive a warning never violate its policies again because of it.
YouTube found in its implementation of its one-time warnings for policy violations in 2019 that many violators have unintentionally violated its community guidelines. As such, the violations they committed are due to their ignorance about its community guidelines rather than a conscious decision on their part.
The educational training course involves providing delinquent creators with more clarity about the type of content violating YouTube's policies. Completing this course has incentives, which include the previously mentioned lifting of the warning they received from their channel.
However, creators must stay clear of the same policy violation for 90 days for this lifting to occur. Otherwise, they could get the offending video removed and get a verified strike to the channel.
Creators who repeat the same mistake after the 90-day mark will have their offending video removed and be issued with another warning. They could then choose to take a new training course if they so wish.
YouTube clarified that this new variation of its existing strike system gives offending creators the chance to learn more about the violation they committed and why their content did so. By contrast, YouTube's past strike system has creators marked with their strikes throughout their channel's lifetime without learning why they got it.
Some Things Don't Change
The company expects its new educational training course will help keep YouTube a "safe and responsible platform" and help the vast majority of creators who strive to produce content that complies with its community guidelines.
However, it reminded in its announcement that its policies regarding the issuance of strikes or terminating channels altogether when creators repeatedly violate policies or post a single case of severe content still stand and "are not changing." As such, it could prevent repeat offenders from taking training courses in the future, preventing them from getting their warnings lifted.
Looking ahead, we'll keep working to make our policies easier for creators to understand," YouTube said. "We ultimately want creators to have the clarity they need to stay strike-free on our platform - while maintaining a healthy experience for YouTube's entire community."
