YouTube's comment sections are a stranger-exposure surface that most parents do not think about until they see what is in them. On regular YouTube, there is no native setting that hides comments for a specific account. This guide covers what you can do, which platforms remove comments by design, and why this matters more than most parental control discussions acknowledge.
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On regular YouTube there is no native setting to hide the comments section for a child's account — comments are part of the page layout and cannot be removed per-user. YouTube Kids removes comments entirely. For regular YouTube, a browser extension can collapse the comments section on desktop. For a complete solution on all devices, Watchly's player has no comments section at all — it was never built in.
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YouTube comments are not like the comments section of a news article. They are a live, constantly updated social layer sitting immediately below every video, and they are read by children in a different cognitive state than they would read a standalone post. A child absorbed in a video they love will scroll down when it ends — and they will read whatever is there.
The range of what is in popular children's video comment sections varies enormously. On a well-moderated family channel it may be entirely benign. On a gaming channel, a slime tutorial, or an unboxing video with a few hundred thousand subscribers, it is far more likely to contain profanity, sexual references, overtly racist or sexist language, and occasionally explicit attempts to contact young viewers. Child protection organisations document patterns of predatory adults deliberately leaving comments on child-coded content to initiate contact.
There is also a subtler problem beyond explicit content: the comment section introduces a social comparison dimension to solo viewing. A child watching a video about their interest will see other people's opinions, arguments, and often cruelty in the comment section. The emotional impact of reading comment section conflict is qualitatively different from watching the video itself, and it is invisible to parents who are not looking over the child's shoulder.
None of this is speculative — it is the reason YouTube Kids was built without a comment section from launch. Google made a deliberate product decision that comments and children do not mix. The problem is that YouTube Kids has other limitations (age ranges, content filtering, ads), so many parents eventually move their children to regular YouTube and forget that the comment-section protection goes with it.
On regular YouTube, there is no per-account or per-supervised-account setting that removes the comments section from the page. Supervised accounts created through Family Link restrict which content is available, but the page layout — including comments — is unchanged for content that passes the content level threshold. A child on an "Explore" supervised account watching an age-appropriate science video will still see a full comments section below it.
On the YouTube Kids app, comments are absent entirely — Google built the product this way and it has not changed. If your child is in an age range where YouTube Kids remains appropriate (roughly up to 12 depending on the content level), this is the simplest solution. The gap is that many children outgrow YouTube Kids before their parents are ready to move them to regular YouTube.
Browser extensions provide a desktop-only workaround. Extensions that can inject CSS or JavaScript into YouTube pages can collapse or remove the comments section from the page layout. In 2026, several general-purpose content blockers and YouTube-specific extensions include a "hide comments" option. This works reasonably well on a managed laptop or desktop computer, but it has no effect whatsoever on the YouTube iOS app, Android app, or smart TV apps.
Creator-level comment disabling is outside your control. Some creators who produce child-appropriate content disable their own comment sections, which helps. But you cannot predict which creators have done this, and a creator's moderation policy can change at any time. Relying on this is not a parenting strategy.
The cleanest path is to move your child's YouTube viewing to a player that does not have a comment section — not one where comments are hidden, but one where the concept was never implemented. Watchly's viewing interface shows the video and a return-to-library control. There is nothing below the video. No comments, no replies, no usernames, no social layer of any kind.
This is not a technical workaround — it is the product design. Watchly is a curated video library player, and comments are not part of a library player's purpose. When a video ends, your child sees the library grid again. The interaction model is entirely about watching, not participating in a public comment space.
Because Watchly is browser-based, the same no-comments experience holds on every device: phone browser, tablet browser, smart TV browser, or laptop. There is no app where comments reappear. The consistency matters especially for families where children switch between multiple devices during the day.
It is worth being direct about scope: Watchly only controls what happens within Watchly. If your child has access to regular YouTube on the same device — through a separate browser tab or the native app — they can reach comments through those routes. The most complete solution is to set Watchly as the YouTube experience on the devices your child uses, rather than adding it alongside open YouTube access.
Watchly is the allow-list YouTube never gave you: only the videos you approved, on any device.
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| Native YouTube / YouTube Kids | Watchly | |
|---|---|---|
| Removes comments on regular YouTube (all devices) | No native setting exists for this | No comment section exists in the player |
| Comments absent on YouTube Kids | Yes — YouTube Kids has no comment section | Yes — Watchly player has no comment section |
| Works on mobile apps and smart TVs | Browser extensions desktop-only; apps have comments | Same no-comments experience in any browser |
| No stranger contact risk via comments | Present on regular YouTube; absent on YouTube Kids | Not possible — no comment section or contact surface |
| Consistent across all content levels | Moving to regular YouTube restores comment section | No comments regardless of age or content settings |
| Curated content alongside comment removal | YouTube Kids has comments off but limited curation | No comments + parent-approved library only |
No comments section. No public text. No strangers below the video.
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Give each child a daily watch time, a bedtime window and intermission breaks partway through. The app enforces all three, so the end of a session is not something your kid negotiates with you.
Create a profile with a name, emoji avatar, 4-digit PIN, and birth year. Your child accesses Watchly through this profile — no comment section, no social layer, no way to reach open YouTube.
Add the channels, playlists, and videos your child enjoys. Import a curated starter library by age and topic to fill it quickly. Everything they watch came from your deliberate choices.
Open Watchly in the browser your child uses. For the most complete protection, remove the YouTube app from their device and set Watchly as the way they access videos. No comment section on any screen.
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