Is There a Way to Block Channels on YouTube? Step-by-Step Guide!

YouTube is fun. Cool videos, follow creators and learn stuff. But let’s face it, some channels are just a pain. Some force the sale of content you don’t necessarily want to see. Others spam your comments or just the algorithm pushes them in your feed, no matter how many times you scroll through it.

If you’ve ever asked yourself Is there a way to block channels on YouTube, you are not alone. Yes, there is a way. In truth, there are a number of ways, depending on what you’re suffering from.

Most guides only mention the word “blocking” on YouTube as one button. There are three tools for three different tasks. Click on the wrong one and you’ll curse yourself, saying you must have muted the channel but it’ll be there again the next morning. That’s the one thing that probably pisses people off the most about this feature, and that’s why we had to scrap this guide in favor of a new one.

First up, here’s why you should get this right. YouTube isn’t a little-used application that you can dismiss. The Pew Research Center’s latest survey of American adults reveals that 84% of respondents use YouTube more than any other platform, even Facebook, which is still used by a majority of Americans, and Instagram or TikTok, which are used by far fewer. The trend is even more skewed among teenagers about nine out of ten U.S. teens use YouTube, and some three out of four of those check it out every day. If a platform is wired that deeply into everyday life, whether it’s their house or their child’s house, then there is a greater importance in exercising choice over what appears.

To add one little FYI: Layout and menus on YouTube are always changing, so a specific button may be one tap to the left of what is described here by the time you read this post. The following tools and logic were current through 2026 and have remained unchanged for years, despite changes in the wording of the menu.
Let’s get into it.

Why People Want to Block a YouTube Channel

People are looking for this for a variety of reasons. Some of the more popular ones:

• You’re still getting the same junk in your feed. You watch one video out of curiosity, and suddenly the algorithm decides that’s your entire personality. A channel that you do not wish to see appearing on your home screen or in Up Next.
• The content feels off. Perhaps it’s clickbait, maybe it’s going in the direction of conspiracy or just something that you are not interested in in your children’s vicinity.
• A channel/commenter is specifically targeting you. Whether you’re a small business or have your own channel or even a personal Facebook account, one of the most common problems is having spammers post spam on your wall or send you unwanted messages.
• You are attempting to shield a kid from viewing. This is by far one of the primary reasons people end up at this exact question, and so it is fitting that the tools listed be included in their own section below, as they are genuinely different from the rest of the tools listed.
• You just want your attention back. There are a ton of people who block channels, not just because they dislike them, but because they’re attempting to prevent the endless scroll.

In any case, the solution is dependent on which of these things you are really suffering from. The next part is that.

How “Blocking” is confusing on YouTube

This is something that you are not told from the get-go: YouTube has no “block this channel forever” button for regular accounts. But rather, there are three distinct systems, each addressing a different issue.

1. Do not suggest the channel and do not wish to see the channel. These determine the content that will appear in your own feed. This is what you want when you’re seeing a channel on your recommendations list that you’d rather not see.
2. “Hide user from my channel” (and “Block” in the live chat). This is a creator tool. It prevents people from commenting on or interacting with your channel. Does not affect personal viewing of others’ videos.
3. Let’s block the channel for kids. This is the closest that YouTube has to an actual, physical block, and it only works within YouTube Kids or a supervised account (set up through Family Link).

If you’ve ever tried to block a channel by clicking Block, but only to find that it’s not being removed from your feed, this is probably why. You used tool #2 when you needed tool #1, or you needed tool #3 all the time. Let’s go over all three, the right way.

How to Stop a Channel From Showing Up in Your Feed

If you just want to stop providing suggestions for this channel, this is the tool you want. It’s nothing new either. Although it was quietly released by YouTube back in 2019, most people haven’t actually used it intentionally. It functions in the identical fashion on the YouTube app, whether on an iPhone or Android device, or on a desktop.

1: Search for a video from the Channel: This can only be a video in your Home feed, Up Next, or Shorts feed. It won’t show up as an option from the channel’s own page.

2: Click the Three Dots (⋮) Next to the Video: Not on the channel page. On the thumbnail for the video, anywhere it is being suggested to you.

3: Click on “Don’t Recommend Channel”: This will make sure that YouTube will no longer recommend content from that channel on your homepage and related videos. Tap Not Interested if you don’t like the video, but you like the channel. A more mellow and per-video variant of the concept.

4: Change Your Mind if you do: Immediately after clicking it, YouTube displays a small “Undo” button. That’s your only chance to reverse just that one action. Once that window is closed, undoing it will reset all preferences at once, further down.

There are a couple of things to be noted here. This can be stored on your Google Account, so as long as you’re signed into the same account on your phone and computer, it should follow you wherever you go. However, it’s a signal and not a rule. It’s still something that can creep in from time to time, as YouTube takes all of these videos into account when creating its recommendations. We will discuss why a bit further down.

The simplest method to block commenting on your YouTube channel

This is what people actually mean when they query about blocking a channel and the internet has been using this process for years, known as “Block User”. It’s been called “Hide user from channel” for some time now, and while the change was implemented quietly some time ago around 2023, many users noticed, the concept remains the same: it prevents a particular individual from engaging with your content.

1: Find a Comment From the Person: Open a video or Community post on your own channel, and find something they have commented on.

2: Click on the 3 dots beside their comment: Choose More, and then choose Hide user from channel.

3: Confirm: Existing and future comments on your channel are removed. They don’t receive a notification, but they can still view your public videos without the ability to comment, join your live chats, or post in your Community tab.

If you prefer to do this en masse, YouTube Studio has you covered:

• Go to YouTube Studio > Settings > Community.
• Look for the Hidden users box and just enter the channel URL of the person directly.
• This is where you’ll find all those that you’ve hidden, and where you will undo them later.

One other variation that you need to know about: If a person is bothering you in the live chat or has talked about your channel in a manner you don’t like, you will see a separate Block option right in the chat or the notice itself. This one works a little differently. It does not hide the comments from your channel, it just prevents both of you from viewing the other’s comments and mentions from now on. You can check all the people you’ve blocked this way on myaccount.google.com/blocklist. Additionally, you might want to check out: Best Time to Post on YouTube.

How to Block YouTube Channels for Kids (The Feature That Works Like a Block)

For parents, this may be the true reason for visiting this site, and it deserves to be treated separately, as real YouTube parental controls are located in a completely different section of YouTube’s parental settings than all of the above.

The worry is substantiated by actual research. 61 percent of parents who reported allowing their children to use YouTube said they had witnessed content they deemed inappropriate for children aged 11 and under in a Pew Research study of families and YouTube. More recently, a collaboration between Common Sense Media and researchers at the University of Michigan specifically examined what young children were watching and concluded that in a sample of videos watched by young children, about 20% of the ads were not age-appropriate (think alcohol ads, violent video games, and other advertising for adults that shows up in kid-friendly videos).

The good news is that blocking a channel via a supervised account or YouTube Kids is an actual block and not just a signal for recommendations, like with the feed-cleanup tool above.

Blocking: Blocking from a linked parent account (computer or YouTube app):

1. Visit the Channel’s page: Look for the channel and visit its main page.
2. Click on the About Tab: Click the Report user (flag) icon.
3. Click on “Block Channel for Kids”: Only available if signed in to a linked parent account. If it is not visible, then you have not set up your account as a supervisor.
4. Keep going through the Warning: YouTube will alert you to the possibility that there may be similar content on other channels. Click Continue.
5. Select a Child to Block It For: Next to your child’s profile, click BLOCK and click Done.

Blocking directly in the YouTube Kids app:

1. Locate a video from the Channel. In the Home screen or Watch page.
2. Click the Three Dots, then “More”: Click on Block this video or Block entire channel.
3. Enter Your Parent Passcode: That content is removed from that child’s profile immediately.

Let’s go straight to the important notes in Google’s own documentation. Any channel blocked on one will be blocked on the other as long as your child logs into both YouTube and YouTube Kids using the same Google Account. But that’s only for that one channel. It will not recapture the same video if it is reuploaded elsewhere, and it will not affect other channels that are publishing similar videos. It’s a real block. It’s simply not a psychic one.

Restricted Mode: A Broader (But Looser) Filter

In addition to blocking individual channels, YouTube has a Restricted Mode setting that attempts to block videos that are likely to contain mature content by scanning the title, description and community flags. It can be accessed by clicking on an individual’s profile image, then at the bottom of the app menu or under Settings on a desktop.

It can be very helpful as a basic filter, but used as an adjunct, not a substitute. It can’t catch everything and anyone, including a tech-savvy kid, can turn it back off with a few taps if it’s not locked in place via a supervised account or network administrator.

How to Block YouTube Channels on Smart TVs and Streaming Devices

It’s the one that catches people out because the YouTube app is different based on the screen. For most smart TVs, Fire TVs, Roku, Apple TV, and Google TV devices, you can select a video and bring up the options menu as you would on a mobile device, generally by holding down the select or OK button on your remote control, and find the same Don’t recommend channel (or Not interested) option. However, on older televisions or televisions with manufacturer tweaks, these options may be entirely removed.

However, if your TV is a family TV, navigating the menu using the remote one video at a time is not a lot of fun, so it’s better to check in with a supervised or a family link Google Account. If you’ve blocked someone on a phone or computer, that should be ported over, and you shouldn’t have to do all this work on the couch. It’s also a good idea to look into your TV manufacturer’s own parental controls. Samsung, LG, Sony or most streaming boxes have their own app-level PIN locks, as this is an additional layer of control, separate from YouTube’s own.

Browser Extensions and Network Filters

For the majority of users, browser extensions can do more than YouTube’s built-in features. Some allow you to create a list of channels or keywords to block and keep it stored throughout the feed, search outcomes and loved videos, and not only on the home page.

The problem with this is that they only work on the browser they’re installed on. You don’t bring your blocklist with you when you switch to your phone, to a different browser or to someone else’s laptop. Before using an extension, be sure to confirm that the one you’ve chosen is being actively maintained. Over the past few years, Chrome has been deprecating an older extension framework called Manifest V2, which was replaced with a newer framework, Manifest V3, with the last support to drop in 2025 and 2026. There is a lot of once-popular software in this very category that didn’t change, so it’s wise to check the last time an extension was updated and its reviews before installing it.

DNS level filtering, the sort of thing that Pi-hole or NextDNS do, is the ideal solution for a whole household or office network, but it can’t be applied to one creator. YouTube is served from a common set of domains, and a DNS filter can disable the entire YouTube service on a device, but it can’t isolate a channel on YouTube.

Why a Blocked Channel Sometimes Still Shows Up Anyway

It’s the most frequent gripe with YouTube blocking tools, and it’s not something to simply be irritated by.

Anything on this list is not a rule outside of the Kids or supervised block. YouTube’s system of recommendations is not one that it has to follow without end, but rather, “Don’t recommend channel,” “Not interested,” and even Restricted Mode are all factors it considers.

There are some specific reasons why a “blocked” channel can come back to life:

• It only follows your account, not the device. If you are not logged in, logged in as a guest or using the profile of another user, your preferences are not in effect.
• Search still works. If you block a channel from your recommendations, it won’t be taken off the search results if you search for it.
• It’s ignored by shared links and embeds. When a friend sends you a link, or the video is embedded in another site, your feed preferences aren’t used there.
• Reposts slip through. The same video, re-uploaded to another channel, does not get blocked on the original channel.
• There are times when it’s okay for Shorts to play by different rules. There have been numerous reports of users seeing that Shorts feeds are much more relaxed when it comes to these signals compared to the main home page.

The whole recommendation machine of YouTube is geared towards ad-supported watch time, and so it will continue to surface whatever works. If a channel is really taking off, there is a way to see it again even if you have muted it. That’s why the Kids or supervised block is more important to parents than the consumer-facing Don’t recommend button. It isn’t a suggestion to an algorithm designed to keep users viewing, it’s a real profile restriction.

To Unblock a YouTube Channel

Changed your mind? Depending on the tool you use, undoing things is done in the following ways:

• Don’t recommend channel or Not interested: Go to Google’s My Activity page and under Other activity, find your YouTube feedback history. It can be removed from there. The catch: This resets all at once. It’s not a scalpel, it’s a complete reset for now. There’s no way to remove one channel from that list.
• Hidden commenters on your channel: Under YouTube Studio > Settings > Community > Hidden users, you can delete individual users at any time.
• Blocked channels for kids: Navigate back to the same About tab and flag icon you used to block it. There you will now see an Unblock option for that child, which can be reversed at any time.

The Algorithm needs to be trained for a Better Feed Long-Term

Blocking individual channels helps, but it’s reactive. For your feed to truly improve over time, rather than playing whack-a-mole all day long, couple it with a couple of habits:

• Turn off Autoplay. The toggle is right next to the video player. If not, nothing will play automatically when your video is over and you won’t be at the mercy of what comes next.
• Remove your watch history from time to time. Select Settings > History & Privacy > Clear Watch History. This doesn’t affect your subscription or playlists you have saved, just a clearer slate on which the algorithm works.
• Provide positive signals, not just negative ones. Use Not Interested on specific videos (not just on a channel) and subscribe to channels you like to see more of—just like you would for videos you like and enjoy.
• Log out of devices that are shared. Passing a tablet or smart TV around the house means that everyone’s viewing history becomes mixed up in one feed and no one’s suggestions really make any sense.

Final Thoughts

Yes, there is a method to block YouTube channels. In fact, there are three and choosing the correct one will make all the difference. For a more subdued feed, “Don’t recommend channel” and “Not interested” will suffice. “Hide user” is the solution if someone is bothering your channel. If you are trying to keep a child safe, bypass the consumer tools and head straight to a supervised account or YouTube Kids. It’s the one tool that’s made to last.

Understand what the appropriate instrument is for your needs and blocking a channel actually takes only a few taps. If this helped to clarify the topic, then share it with someone else who is likely engrossed in a similar recommendation feed as you were.