YouTube Kids Gets Stricter Parental Curation, New Mode for Older Kids Rolling Out in the US

Google's video-sharing platform YouTube on Thursday announced certain new improvements for YouTube Kids, the company's app focused on providing video content targeted towards minor viewers. Firstly, YouTube Kids is getting a new parental control feature that will allow users to handpick every video and channel that their child sees on the app. Apart from that, YouTube Kids is getting a new "Older" profile meant for children aged between 8-12 years. YouTube also urges parents to block and flag inappropriate content that might have seeped past YouTube Kids' filters.

Following up on stricter regulations that the company put into place in April this year on YouTube Kids, parental controls have been heavily customised with parents now getting control over each and every video that the child watches on the app. It is available on Android starting September 13, and coming soon to iOS as well. To enable this feature, go into Settings on the YouTube Kids app. From here, browse to the child's profile and select "approved content only". Interestingly, a report from April had speculated that these whitelisting capabilities would soon be rolled out on the YouTube Kids app.

Once done, parents can click on the "+" button that now appears on the top right of any video to add it to their curation of videos offering to the minor viewer. This feature will not allow the child to search for content on their own.

Furthermore, YouTube Kids is getting the new "Older" profile in the US, with plans to expand globally. The Older profile is aimed at 8-12 year old kids that will allow for access to additional content including music and gaming videos. This preset can be selected when setting up a new profile or while updating an existing one. In the US, users will start seeing a default Younger mode, the new Older mode, and improved parental controls.

"We work hard to make videos in the app family friendly, but no system is perfect. It's always possible that a parent may find something they don't want their child to watch in the "Younger" or "Older" experiences," said James Beser, Product Director, YouTube Kids, in a blog post. "If this happens, we ask that parents block and flag the video for review by our team. This makes YouTube Kids better for everyone. As we continue to receive feedback from parents and turn that feedback into improvements to the YouTube Kids app, we hope that all families and kids can create the experience they want!"