Parents now allowed more control over content on YouTube Kids app
After a string of headlines about inappropriate videos slipping through the cracks on the YouTube Kids app, the Google-owned network has a workaround — curated content.
Parents will be given a choice to offer their young children a collection of channels, featuring content from Sesame Street, PBS and Kidzbop, with specific topics of interest like education, homework help, arts and crafts, and science.
The YouTube Kids app is a separate, stand-alone app for smartphones and tablets, aimed at offering a safer video experience than the main YouTube app, which is a hotbed of viral videos aimed at adults.
YouTube’s terms of service says viewers need to be at least 13 for the main channel, though critics have questioned its commitment to enforcing that policy. YouTube’s second-most popular U.S. channel is Ryan ToysReview, a toy channel fronted by a 6-year-old, according to measurement service TubularLabs.
YouTube execs wouldn’t address the recent controversies but said in a blog post the move was made so parents could “select only the channel collections and topics they want their kids to access.”
To make the changes, go into Profile Settings on the app, select from available collections such as Sesame Workshop and PBS KIDS. YouTube says it will be adding more partners over time.
Later this year, YouTube will add a feature to allow parents to handpick every video and channel for their children in the app.
A tool also allows parents to turn search off within the YouTube Kids app and limit the viewing to only channels that have been verified by the YouTube Kids team. This means that the “recommended for you” algorithm, which has gotten YouTube into hot water by suggesting inappropriate videos, will not be in play.
For existing users to get the new tools, go to the IOS and Android app stores to update the app and go to settings for the update. For new users, after they’ve downloaded the app, they will be prompted to make the search selection, says the company.
YouTube hit a rough patch in late 2017, with advertisers pulling away from the service after news reports showed child predators using videos of young children as de facto chat rooms and after outcry over YouTube creators using children’s characters like Elsa from Frozen or Nickelodeon’s Peppa Pig and splicing in non-kid friendly language and themes.
YouTube Kids was supposed to be a safer playgrounds for younger crowd. But parents started to notice that violent videos were able to pass through its filter, too.