Sponsored videos: YouTube's paid-promotion checkbox adds an on-video label and unlocks age/country limits, but the US FTC says a platform tool alone may not be enough - say it in the video, repeat it in live streams, avoid "sp/spon/collab"

YouTube (R1): any branded content, sponsorship, endorsement or other commercial relationship must be declared with the paid promotion setting in video details; this adds a disclosure label at the start of the video. Selecting it also exposes custom minimum-age and per-country age restrictions (desktop Studio, new or existing videos) for local advertising laws or partner requirements. YouTube points creators to national regulators (FTC US, ASA UK, DGCCRF France, Medienanstalten Germany, KFTC Korea) and states its article is not legal advice. FTC influencer guide (R2, Nov 2019): disclose any financial, employment, personal or family relationship and any free or discounted product even if not asked to mention it; place the disclosure with the endorsement; in video, the disclosure should be in the video itself and not only in the description; in live streams repeat it periodically; "Don't assume that a platform's disclosure tool is good enough" - use it in addition to your own disclosure; #ad / "advertisement" / "sponsored" are acceptable, while "sp", "spon", "collab", "thanks" or "ambassador" alone are not. Practical rule for creators and AI-generated ad spots: tick paid promotion AND state the relationship verbally/on screen at the point of the endorsement; for Shorts and live, keep it inside the content. Synthetic presenters do not remove the advertiser's disclosure duty (see also synthetic-content labelling C3-B463-01). Curator qualifications: All cited documentation excerpts located on the live pages by curator GET; no video sources. The FTC page (2019) was read through a summarising fetch; exact page bytes not pinned. Not legal advice. Limitations: FTC page is dated Nov 2019 and was read only through a summarising fetch (exact page bytes not pinned); the 2023 revised Endorsement Guides (16 CFR 255) were not re-read here. Jurisdiction-specific: UK/EU/KR rules differ. YouTube page undated. Not legal advice. Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

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  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/154235?hl=en",
      "note": "intro; How to disclose; How to disclose"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/disclosures-101-social-media-influencers",
      "note": "intro; How to disclose; How to disclose"
    }
  ]
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