Once you've secured your YouTube channel's Google Account, explore best practices for maintaining online safety on YouTube.
Do you think that your YouTube channel was hacked? Learn how to recover and secure it.
Avoid suspicious requests
Phishing is when a hacker disguises themselves as someone trustworthy to take your personal information.
Don't reply to suspicious emails, texts, instant messages, web pages or phone calls that offer, for example:
- Free crypto coins
- Marketing assistance that requires channel access
- Passwords to open encrypted files
Don't click links or open files from untrusted sources in emails, messages, websites, pop-ups or on YouTube offering, for example:
- Free thumbnail templates
- Premium editing programmes
- Unknown software
Hackers may use emails, text messages or web pages to pretend to be institutions, family members or colleagues.
YouTube will never ask you for your password, email address or other account information. To protect yourself against phishing, never enter your password on any page except myaccount.google.com. Don't be fooled if someone gets in touch with you pretending to be from YouTube. YouTube emails only come from @youtube.com or @google.com addresses.
Report spam or phishing
If you find videos on YouTube that you think might be spam or phishing, flag them for review by the YouTube team. To learn more about spam and phishing, visit the National Cyber Security Alliance.
Tip: Learn more about phishing with our phishing quiz.
Keep your account safe
Secure your Google Account with this easy checklist and follow these additional best practices:
Never share your sign-in info
- Never give out your passwords. Use channel permissions or Brand Accounts to grant access to your collaborators instead of sharing passwords.
- YouTube will never ask for your password in an email, message or phone call.
- YouTube will never send a form asking for personal information such as identity number, financial data or passwords.
Check and update channel access
If you're a creator, you can invite someone else to manage your YouTube channel without giving access to your Google Account. Using channel permissions allows for clear roles and responsibilities. Invite someone to access your channel as a:
- Manager: Can add or remove others and edit channel details.
- Editor: Can edit all channel details.
- Editor (limited): Same permissions as editor, but can't view revenue information.
- Viewer: Can view (but not edit) all channel details.
- Viewer (limited): Can view (but not edit) all channel details except revenue information.
Remove unknown users
If you don't recognise the people managing your account, your account may have been hacked. You should change or remove these users as soon as possible, depending on your account type.
- Change or remove access from your YouTube channel
- Change or remove access from your Brand Account
If someone leaves your team, you should remove access immediately.
Note: If you have a Brand Account, you can invite someone to manage your Google Account and your YouTube channel. Check if you have a Brand Account and learn how to manage Brand Account permissions.
Remove sites and apps that you don't need
To protect your Google Account and YouTube channel, avoid installing unknown apps or apps from unknown sources. Manage and remove any apps that you don't need from your connected accounts.
Visit the Creator Safety Centre
Visit the Creator Safety Centre to continue growing your channel safely. Create a plan to stay safe online.