How to block challenge videos on YouTube

Block last to leave contests, timed stunts, and copyable challenge videos on YouTube with rules for your child's computer.

What challenge videos ask people to do

Challenge videos turn a limit, prize or dare into a contest. Last to leave rooms, overnight stays, timed food tasks, hide and seek games and survive for a day formats all use a clear rule and an escalating reward or forfeit.

The format ranges from simple games to costly sets and physical stunts. Parents may notice children copying a dare without the crew, editing or safety steps behind the upload. Serialized challenges also end on a result or cliffhanger that points straight to the next contest.

Title and channel rules to use

These are plain text block rules that work with Vidward’s current rule engine. They do not use regular expressions. Add only the values that fit what your child watches. A channel rule hides every upload from that channel, not only videos about this topic. Use one only when you want the whole channel hidden.

Words in the title

challenge
last to leave
24 hour challenge
whoever wins
survive for

Channels to block

MrBeast
Stokes Twins
Ben Azelart
Dude Perfect
Ryan Trahan

Start with exact phrases such as 24 hour challenge and last to leave. Three of these are wider than they look. The single word challenge hides sports lessons and school projects. Whoever wins turns up in sports, elections and wildlife videos. Survive for reads as a survival or nature title as often as a challenge one. Add those three only if your child's feed uses them for challenges.

Add the rules in Vidward

1
Create your free Vidward account. The trial runs for 7 days with no credit card.
2
Add your child in the dashboard and note the activation code it shows. The code is reusable and stays valid until you regenerate it.
3
On your child's computer, install the Vidward extension from the Chrome Web Store, open its welcome page, and enter that activation code to link the computer to your child's profile.
4
If the child uses Block specific content, open the Channels tab and add one rule at a time.
5
For a title word, reopen the form, choose Block, select "Words in the title", then paste the value and save.
6
For a channel, reopen the form, choose Block, and select "Channel" rather than "Channel name". "Channel" gives you a search box: type the name, then pick the channel from the results. That stores the channel's own ID, so the rule cannot match a different channel that happens to share the display name.
7
A browser that is already running can take up to five minutes to fetch dashboard changes. Restart the browser to fetch them sooner.

Using Approved channels only?

That strategy blocks videos from channels you have not approved, but Shorts can still slip past it. Do not paste these channel names into the Approve form because that would let the channel through. Leave them off the approved list instead. Turn on Block Shorts in Filters if you want those clips hidden too. Title word rules are not available in this mode.

What YouTube gives you built in

Can YouTube block challenge videos?

YouTube does not offer a challenge topic block. Parents can block specific channels for a supervised child account, and YouTube Kids can block channels and videos. Don't recommend channel can remove one source from suggestions, but the same format still appears from other accounts, in search and through links. Title rules cover the repeated format phrases instead.

Read our guide to YouTube’s parent settings if you want to compare those choices before adding rules.