YouTube recently announced new ways to customize children’s viewing experience on the YouTube Kids app, which includes parent-approved content and new content level settings. The parent-approved content feature allows parents to determine which videos and channels are suitable for their children. This feature gives parents more control over their children’s viewing experience. Parents can access this feature through the application settings, where they can proceed to their child’s profile and limit the videos that the child can view to “approved content only”. When this option is selected, the child cannot search for videos to watch on the YouTube Kids app by themselves. To select the videos that the child can see, parents may search for videos, channels, or collections of channels that they like and press the plus button.
YouTube is also introducing a new content level setting in the YouTube Kids app. This content level, named as “Older”, is targeted towards children between ages 8 to 12. If parents choose this content level in the app settings, their children will be exposed to a less restrictive video streaming experience, allowing them to view content like game streams and popular music videos. On the other hand, YouTube Kids also offers a more restrictive content experience with the “Younger” content level. This content level is the default content setting of the streaming service and it is curated to showcase videos suitable for pre-school and elementary school children. The “Older” content level setting is currently rolling out to users in the United States, and there are plans to deploy this feature globally soon.
YouTube has previously rolled out features that reduce the number of inappropriate videos that reach children on the YouTube Kids app. Last April, the video streaming platform allowed parents to limit the videos displayed on the YouTube Kids application to collections curated by actual humans. Meanwhile, turning off the search function of the app limits the content experience of children to channels that have been verified by the YouTube Kids team. Moreover, Google’s video platform is encouraging parents to report videos that may not be suitable for the YouTube Kids app for review.
