Restricted mode hides potentially dangerous and inappropriate comments below a YouTube video. When you want to read the comments section under a particular video on YouTube and you see the message “Restricted mode has hidden comments for this video”, it could mean two things. Restricted mode is either enabled on your YouTube account or the system administrator has enabled it network-wide.
In this article, we'll show you how to disable restricted mode on YouTube on a range of browsers and devices.
Restricted mode has hidden comments for this video – Firefox
YouTube has developed the Restricted Mode feature to protect minors from inappropriate content in order to maintain a safe environment on this platform. Even though inappropriate or harmful content is usually removed very quickly, sometimes it can sneak into the system. YouTube warns you that no filter is 100% accurate.
If you go to read the comments section of a YouTube video and see "Restricted mode has hidden comments for this video", that means you need to disable restricted mode to access comments. Restricted mode not only has the power to prevent you from reading the comment section, but it can disable the YouTube video as well. This generally applies to live YouTube videos, where new comments can appear every half second.
YouTube's Restricted Mode feature is disabled by default. If you're using someone else's computer or watching a YouTube video on a school or library computer, the system administrator may have enabled restricted mode. If you're using a corporate computer, you might not be able to see YouTube comments because restricted mode is enabled for Google Workspace or G Suite.
To turn off restricted mode on YouTube on Firefox, here's what you need to do:
- Open Firefox on your computer and go to Youtube.
- Sign in to your YouTube account if you haven't already.
- Click on your profile picture in the upper right corner of your screen.
- Scroll down to the "Restricted Mode: Enabled" tab in the drop-down menu.
- Toggle the "Enable Restricted Mode" switch so that it turns gray.
- Refresh the page.
- That's all we can say about it. When you return to the YouTube video, you will be able to see all the comments below.
Keep in mind that disabling restricted mode will only apply to that particular browser. If restricted mode has been configured on multiple browsers, you will need to repeat these steps for each one. Since Restricted Mode can be enabled by a user or an administrator, whether you can disable it or not depends. If an administrator has enabled restricted mode on your device, only they can disable it.
Restricted mode has hidden comments for this video - Chrome
Now that you've disabled restricted mode on YouTube on Firefox, let's see how you would do it on Chrome. Activating this feature will only take you about a minute. To see how to do this, follow the steps below:
- Launch Google Chrome on your computer.
- Go to Youtube and login to your account.
- Click on your profile picture in the upper right corner of your screen.
- Switch to the "Restricted Mode: Enabled" tab in the menu.
- Click "Enable Restricted Mode" to disable this feature.
- Refresh the page.
You will notice that the comments section will instantly become available below the YouTube video.
As mentioned earlier, if you use a computer at school, work, university, or the library, you may not be able to disable Restricted Mode yourself. Even if you log in to your account, you still won't be able to disable this feature. If this happens to you, the best thing to do is to turn to the system administrator and ask them to disable this feature on their network. Otherwise, there is nothing you can do about it.
Access the YouTube comments section
As useful as Restricted Mode is, it can prevent you from viewing YouTube videos and comments that are actually completely safe. YouTube's algorithm isn't always foolproof, so it's worth knowing how to turn off restricted mode on all your browsers and devices. As long as it hasn't been set by a system administrator, you should be able to do this easily.
Have you ever had issues with restricted mode when trying to read comments under a YouTube video? How did you get past it? Let us know in the comments.
