YouTube announces a new choice for parents whose tweens and teens are ready to explore YouTube with a supervised account - think of it as YouTube Kids + or YouTube-!
Since the beginning, YouTube has been a platform for people over 13, and in 2015, YouTube Kids was born as a safer destination for kids to explore their interests while providing parental controls. But as many of us may have realised, older children have different needs, which weren’t being fully met by YouTube Kids.
YouTube Kids+ or YouTube-
This is why, in the coming months, YouTube will be launching a new experience in beta for parents to allow their children to access YouTube through a supervised Google Account.
This supervised experience will come with content settings and limited features. This new account will be made available as early beta for families with kids under the age of consent in over 80 countries to test and provide feedback.
Parents Will Still Have Control
Every parent has a different parenting style and that every child is unique and reaches different developmental stages at different times. That’s why the account gives parents the ability to choose from 3 different content settings on YouTube.
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Explore: For children ready to move on from YouTube Kids and explore content on YouTube, this setting will feature a broad range of videos generally suitable for viewers ages 9+, including vlogs, tutorials, gaming videos, music clips, news, educational content and more.
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Explore More: With content generally suitable for viewers ages 13+, this setting will include an even larger set of videos, and also live streams in the same categories as “Explore.”
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Most of YouTube: This setting will contain almost all videos on YouTube, except for age-restricted content, and it includes sensitive topics that may only be appropriate for older teens.
More New Features for Families
Striking a balance between empowering tweens and teens to more safely gain independence, YouTube will also have new features that offer parents ways to set controls. In addition to choosing the content setting, parents will be able to manage watch and search history from within their child's account settings. Parents can also use other controls offered by Google’s Family Link, including screen timers.
More parental controls will be added over time, such as blocking content.
Like YouTube But It Is Not
When a parent grants access to YouTube, their child’s experience will feel much like regular YouTube, but certain features will be disabled to protect younger audiences. For example, there won't be personalized ads or ads in certain categories.
At launch, in-app purchases, as well as creation and comments features will be disabled.
Since self-expression and community are integral parts of YouTube and children's development, YouTube will work with parents and experts to add some of these features through an age-appropriate and parent controlled approach over time.
YouTube Kids Is Still For Younger Kids
While YouTube is building this new supervised experience for parents who think their older kids are ready to use YouTube, but YouTube Kids is still recommended for younger kids to watch independently and have a more contained viewing experience.
On YouTube Kids, you can expect expanding product availability, new features, and several new parental tools, such as a highly-requested option for parents to select specific videos and channels from the main YouTube platform that they’d like their child to explore on YouTube Kids.
What do you think of this new tool? Will it be helpful in managing the watching behavior and habits of your older kids?
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