Can You Turn off Comments on YouTube?
By Julius Vandersteen
After you shoot a video and upload it to YouTube, you might notice that people who viewed your video are leaving comments about it, and you wonder whether you can disable commenting. YouTube allows each video uploader to determine whether people can make comments on a video, and you can easily turn them off.
About YouTube
YouTube is a free online video-hosting service that anyone can sign up with to get an account and upload videos. You can browse and search for videos other people have uploaded, add them to your playlist and share your playlists with other people. People who want feedback on their YouTube videos can solicit comments from their viewers.
Turning off Comments on YouTube
Start your Web browser, navigate to the YouTube website (youtube.com) and log in to your account. Click your user name at the top of the page and then click "Videos." A list of your uploaded videos appears. Click the "Edit" button under the video for which you want to turn off comments. Click the "Don't Allow Comments" option, and then click "Save Changes."
Enabling Comments on YouTube
Go to the YouTube website and sign in to your account. Click your YouTube account name at the top of the page. Click "Videos." Click the "Edit" button under a video for which you want to enable commenting. Click an option, such as "Allow Comments Automatically," "Allow Friends' Comments Automatically, All Others with Approval Only" or "Allow All Comments with Approval Only." Click "Save Changes."
Considerations
When you post a video to YouTube that you make available for anyone to see, you might want to see comments from a variety of people to get different perspectives that you might not have considered. However, because anyone can look at a public YouTube video, you might see people writing rude or off-topic comments or statements designed to anger you rather than give you useful feedback.
Writer Bio
Julius Vandersteen has been a freelance writer since 1999. His work has appeared in “The Los Angeles Times,” “Wired” and “S.F. Weekly.” Vandersteen has a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from San Francisco State University.