Parents given more control over what children watch
YouTube said Wednesday that it will give parents of young children something they have sought for a long time: more control over which videos their kids will be able to see. In a company blog post, YouTube said that starting this week, it will give parents the ability choose to give their children access to a group of “trusted channels” as opposed to the entire swath of videos available on the YouTube Kids app. Parents will be able to turn off the search feature in the app, which will then only provide access to content recommended by the trusted video channels.
“It is our hope that these additional options will allow every family to have the experience they want in the YouTube Kids app,” wrote James Beser, product director for YouTube Kids, in the post announcing the new features for the app. YouTube will give parents even more control over what their kids can watch on the YouTube Kids app later this year, as Beser wrote that YouTube will roll out an option that will allow parent to pick the individual videos they want their kids to be able to see on the app. That’s right. A mom or dad will be able to sit down and single out as watchable the specific videos their kids can view. Beser added that even with all the new controls YouTube Kids will soon have, YouTube Kids users will still be able to use the app with its full functionality if they so choose and their parents permit it.