Are you a member of YouTube?  If not, you need to crawl out from under your rock and sign up for a free membership. Register for free by submitting the form on the Youtube homepage, it only takes a few minutes. After registration. you will be able to instantly start viewing and rating the millions of information and entertainment videos on youtube.

YouTube is very entertaining and educational, even if you are only interested in watching videos from other users or if you want to upload your own videos. YouTube, does have some strict rules and regulations if you want to keep your account from getting banned, so it is important that you know and follow these rules. Keep reading for a list of a few of the common rules broken that you may not even know you are breaking, but will surely get your Youtube account shut down.

If you are simply interested in watching YouTube videos and not uploading your own, the rules are a lot less strict.  When you register for a free YouTube account, you will only need to provide a minimal amount of personal information such as your name, zip code, birth date, and gender, you should be honest during registration and you should not register multiple YouTube accounts. 

Be carefull with leaving comments on YouTube videos, if you leave comments on a YouTube video, you should use good judgment.  You can leave negative feedback, but only do it if ir is really warranted.  Avoid foul language and do not threaten other YouTube members.  The owner of the video you are commenting on can always delete comments, so leaving distasteful comments will not only get the comment deleted, but can even get your YouTube account suspended.

If you are interested in uploading videos to YouTube so others can view it, you are more likely to find a larger number of rules to follow.  The most important rule to follow is the content of your video should be created by you 100% and not depicting any illegal activity. Use caution when making your videos, as you never really know who will be watching them. Many police departments are using Youtube to help them solve crimes in addition to potential online predators that may be viewing your YouTube videos. Although it seems like I should not have to mention this, you will be amazed at how many people film themselves robbing people or committing some sort of crime and then uploading the evidence to Youtube.

You should always make sure that your video content is actually yours. You need to make sure that videos you post online were actually made by you.  Before using music clips, television clips, or movie clips, you need to get permission to do so. If you fail to get permission, you are, essentially, stealing someone else's work.  Youtube has software that will actually search for similar notes of music on it's site and shut your account down if they find a matching copyrighted song, so be very carefull when using music that you did not create, even if the music was free to use or royalty free.

These rules are just a few of the many that you should follow when using YouTube.  If you do not follow these simple rules, you will most likely end up having your Youtube account suspended and lose all of your hard earned youtube channel followers.  If you submitted a video that went against YouTube’s guidelines, your video may be removed.  If you are caught committing a crime, such as using drugs, drinking underage, or committing a robbery, you may also be prosecuted for your actions by local law enforecement.  Use common sense when uploading videos to Youtube, for your own safety and freedom, you not only need to know all of YouTube’s rules, but you also follow them at all times.