YouTube Kids update gives kids their own profiles, expands controls features review

YouTube Kids has tons of fun and educational videos that are just right for kids. There’s also a whole bunch of parental controls that let you create an experience that’s just right for your family.


KID PROFILES:
Create a separate profile for up to 8 kids. With different viewing preferences and recommendations, now multiple kids can get the most out of the app.

Chromecast, Apple TV or game consoles

Android TV Devices
Install the YouTube Kids TV app from the Play Store.

Smart TVs
Download and install the app on from your Smart TV.


For more information, visit kids.youtube.com.

Other important information:
Parental setup is needed to ensure the best experience possible for your kid.



YouTube Kids contains paid ads in order to offer the app for free. Your kid may also see videos with commercial content from YouTube creators that are not paid ads.


The Privacy Notice for Google Accounts created in Family Link describes our privacy practices when your kid uses YouTube Kids with their Google Account. When your kid uses YouTube Kids without signing into their Google Account, the YouTube Kids Privacy Notice applies.


YouTube Kids, the kid-friendly, more filtered version of YouTube first introduced in 2015, is getting a notable upgrade. The updated app is adding several new features designed to reflect the app’s now aging user base, including profiles that are customized based on the kid’s date of birth, as well as additional security controls for parents and kids.

VIDEOS FOR YOUNGER KIDS
We have engaging, educational videos for little ones from preschool right on up through school-age. The younger kids can find videos from Pocoyo, Masha and the Bear, LEGO, Talking Tom, Caillou, Peppa Pig, Little Baby Bum, Teletubbies, and many more.

While YouTube Kids came under fire in the past for not fully locking down the YouTube experience, overall, it’s a safer way to allow kids to browse YouTube compared with giving them access to the main app.

PARENTAL CONTROLS
We’ve worked hard to make YouTube Kids a family-friendly app, including the addition of new features to help manage your kid’s online experience and keep you in the driver’s seat.

The Kids app is designed with a simpler interface, fun music and curated selections of kid-appropriate content from publishers like DreamWorks TV, Jim Henson TV, Mother Goose Club, Talking Tom and Friends, National Geographic Kids, Reading Rainbow and Thomas the Tank Engine, among others.

CUSTOM CONTENT:
Tailor the video access appropriate for your kids by signing in, creating a profile, and selecting the content setting.

In response to earlier complaints, parents were later allowed to toggle off the app’s search capabilities and set their own private passcode, instead of using the default setting, which spells out numbers as words for parents to enter.

BLOCKING:
Find a video you don’t like? Block it. Customize the content in the YouTube Kids app by signing in and blocking videos or channels you don’t want your kid to see.

In the new release, parents can now sign in with their Google account in order to create customizable profiles for their child or children.

TOGGLE SEARCH:
Turn search on so your kid can access more videos. Turn search off for a more contained experience. Whether search is on or off, the app will recommend videos on the homescreen selected by our automated systems from the broad set of videos accessible in YouTube Kids.

Based on the kid’s age, YouTube Kids will change the way it looks. This will be useful not only for parents with multiple kids, but also because YouTube Kids itself, by default, looked like an app that was designed more so for preschoolers than the school-age crowd.

With the new profiles, younger children will see an app that uses less text while older kids will have more content on their homescreens, says YouTube.

CONTENT ON YOUTUBE KIDS
Our app is designed to filter out inappropriate videos for kids, but no system is perfect. If a video that’s inappropriate shows up, you have the power to block it, flag it, and bring it to our attention for fast review.

Plus, kids with brothers or sisters can choose to set their own passcode to keep the others out of their own account. (Parents, of course, can override this if need be.)

The app also introduces a new setup process for parents that includes more detailed information to help them make the right choices related to the parental control options, as well as be more informed about the app in general.

SET TIME LIMITS:
Our built-in timer tells kids when it’s time to stop watching, so you don’t have to. Once the time limit is reached, a “Time’s Up!” notification appears and the app is be locked

For example, a longer intro explains to parents that YouTube does not manually review the videos in YouTube Kids — meaning there’s still a chance that something inappropriate could get through its automated filters. And it details how to block and report the videos that slip through.

“Remember our systems work hard to filter out more mature content from the app. But no system is perfect,” writes Balaji Srinivasan, the YouTube Kids engineering director, in today’sblog post announcing the upgraded app.

Important information for parents with Family Link Google accounts.
You can create Google Accounts for kids under the age of 13 in Family Link. Your kids can sign into YouTube Kids with their Google Account. You can access parental settings in the Family Link app and enable an additional content level setting in our app. Opt into an “older” setting if you feel your kid is ready for less restricted videos. These videos may contain some explicit language and imagery, violence and suggestive content. In addition, this setting tries to exclude mature content, but no automated system is perfect and your kid may find content with nudity, highly offensive language, and extreme violence.

In other words, YouTube Kids is definitely saying that it’s not going to devote additional staff to make YouTube Kids 100 percent safe. It’s just aiming for “good enough.”


WATCH ON ALL YOUR SCREENS
Gather your family and enjoy YouTube Kids on your tablet, smartphone, or TV*
*Restrictions apply.

A final setup screen offers a longer explanation as to why parents may want to turn search on or off, allowing parents to better understand the risk associated with that decision.

YouTube says it’s now working on a way to allow parents to add more content to the app, but doesn’t go into detail. It’s also looking into building out the experience for tweens, with a focus on the categories that most appeal to that somewhat older demographic.

PROVIDE FEEDBACK:
We’re always looking for ways to improve YouTube Kids and you can help by giving us feedback about the app. Please let us know about any issues you’ve experienced, changes you’d like to see, or videos that should be flagged.

Though YouTube Kids may not be perfect, it has proven to be popular. The app is now live in 37 countries, has more than 11 million weekly active viewers and has seen more than 70 billion views in the app. (The new kid profiles, however, are only available in select markets for now. The full list is here.)