YouTube To Grant Parents Access To Restrict Older Kids’ Video Viewing

The biggest internet video aggregators, YouTube has announced its intention to introduce new features that will give parents the ability to grant kids more access to YouTube through a “supervised” Google Account. 

The new “supervised” YouTube account option, will roll out the next few months and is aimed at parents who feel their tweens or teens have outgrown the walled-garden confines of the YouTube Kids app but are not yet ready for the weird, wide world of unrestricted YouTube.

With the new option, parents will be able to set up a managed YouTube account for their children, including for kids legally barred from using regular YouTube by themselves (in Nigeria, that applies to those under 18; the age varies in different countries). Children with these accounts will not be able to upload videos or comment, and they’ll have various content filters to restrict which videos they can watch.

James Beser, YouTube’s director of product management for kids and family, wrote in a blog post. “we’ve heard from parents and older children that tweens and teens have different needs, which weren’t being fully met by our products, as children grow up, they have an insatiable curiosity and need to gain independence and find new ways to learn, create and belong.”

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In 2015, the platform debuted YouTube Kids, a hub with content curated for kids 4-12 and featuring multiple parental controls.

YouTube says supervised accounts will launch in beta in the coming months in more than 80 countries, available through a supervised Google Account.

Certain YouTube features will be disabled using the supervised google account " to protect younger audiences". Users on supervised YouTube accounts won't see personified ads in certain categories and won't be able to make in-app purchases.

Also, parents will be able to access their children's viewing and search history and can use other controls offered by Google's Family Link, including screen timers. YouTube plans to add other parental controls over time such as the ability to block specific content.

The YouTube kid supervised account will provide three content settings for parents: “Explore,” “Explore More” and “Most of YouTube,” with content filtered based on a mix of user input, machine learning and human review to determine which videos are included.

“We know that our systems will make mistakes and will continue to evolve over time,” Beser noted. For younger children, YouTube still recommends YouTube Kids as the best way for them “to watch independently and have a more contained viewing experience."