In the past few months, there has been growing chatter around the safety of kids online, and rightly so. A certain percentage of social media and streaming platforms, including YouTube , has an active user base of teens. Speaking of which, YouTube Shorts is teens’ go-to space. Much of it has to do with endless scrolling. Now, with parents getting more cautious about what and how long their kids should consume YouTube content, the platform is making a commendable move. As a result, YouTube is getting an update that allows parents to not just limit screen time with Shorts but also gives them the option to entirely block access to teens in the coming days.
Parents can now limit teens’ Shorts access with an incoming block feature
In an announcement blog post , YouTube’s VP of Product Management, Jennifer Flannery O’Connor, mentions that the latest updates are dedicated to teens and their parents. YouTube wants to give parents a bit more control over what teens watch on the platform. As mentioned earlier, parents can now set specific time limits on YouTube Shorts .
In the coming days, YouTube will also introduce a feature that will let parents entirely block teens’ access to Shorts. YouTube adds that the Shorts-blocking feature can be handy at times when teens have to get around to their homework. Parents will later be able to unblock YouTube Shorts for entertainment. YouTube will also be rolling out custom Bedtime and Take a Break reminders to supervised teen accounts.
At a time when AI and low-quality content have flooded YouTube, it is also making sure to recommend the best content to teens out there. For that, YouTube has introduced new principles and a creator guide specifically for teen audiences. These guidelines, as YouTube mentions, were developed with YouTube’s Youth Advisory Committee and experts from UCLA, the American Psychological Association, and Boston Children’s Hospital. The idea is to push teens toward YouTube or Shorts content that’s more enriching, age-appropriate, and higher quality.
Teens will soon start to see informative content on the platform
Not to mention, these principles will also heavily influence YouTube recommendations for teens. Educational and informative content from creators like Khan Academy, CrashCourse, and TED-Ed will appear more frequently for teen viewers. These changes build on YouTube’s existing safeguards for kids under 13. Last but not least, the Google-owned video streaming platform is also making account setup easier for families. A new sign-up experience will allow parents to create kid accounts and switch between profiles directly in the mobile app . Not to forget, YouTube already places teens into protected under-18 accounts by default. Meaning, all the aforementioned changes make it easier to ensure everyone is in the right viewing environment.
