Every family navigates media and technology differently, and YouTube understands this diversity. That’s why we provide a range of options, empowering you to decide what best suits your family’s needs when it comes to enjoying YouTube. We are committed to regularly updating our platform to address the evolving needs of families, guided by insights from our advisory committee of independent experts in child safety and online wellbeing.
Discover Age-Appropriate YouTube Experiences for Kids, Pre-teens, and Teens
YouTube offers distinct pathways for children of all ages to explore video content, each designed with safety and age-appropriateness in mind. Whether you’re looking for a more controlled environment for younger children or ways to guide older kids towards responsible online habits, YouTube provides tools and features to support your family’s journey.
Supervised YouTube Experience for Pre-Teens
For parents who believe their pre-teens are ready to explore the broader YouTube universe, our supervised experience offers a balance of access and control. This option allows pre-teens to enjoy a wide range of videos and music within a framework managed by you. It comes equipped with content settings tailored for this age group, robust parental controls, and digital wellbeing protections to ensure a safer viewing experience.
- Create a supervised Google Account specifically for YouTube. This allows you to manage your child’s YouTube experience seamlessly across various platforms, including the app, website, Smart TVs, and gaming consoles.
- Choose from three distinct content settings designed to align with content ratings suitable for pre-teens and older, generally starting at age 9+. These settings help filter content to be more age-appropriate.
Set parental controls for a supervised YouTube accountUtilize comprehensive parental controls to customize your child’s YouTube access. Block specific channels, set screen time limits, and manage other settings conveniently through Google’s Family Link app, giving you greater oversight.- Before your pre-teen starts exploring, take advantage of our parent guide. Explore the parent guide to initiate important conversations about online safety and responsible YouTube usage, preparing them to be informed and safe users.
While the supervised YouTube experience offers access to a vast library of videos, significantly larger than YouTube Kids, it’s important to remember that no system is perfect. Although our systems actively work to filter out inappropriate content, mistakes can occur. Some videos may still be unsuitable for younger viewers. If a more restricted environment is preferred for your child, YouTube Kids might be a more suitable alternative.
Supervised YouTube Experience for Teens
As children transition into their teenage years, their interests naturally expand. YouTube’s supervised experience evolves to support this growth, helping parents maintain open communication with their teens as they begin to engage more actively with the platform, including creating and sharing their own content.
- Receive timely email notifications whenever your teen uploads a new video or starts a livestream. This feature keeps you informed about their content creation activities on YouTube.
- Gain valuable shared insights into your teen’s YouTube channel activity. Stay informed about their uploads, comments they make, and channels they subscribe to, fostering transparency and understanding.
- Effortlessly link accounts with your teen’s permission using a QR code or a shared link. This streamlined process simplifies setting up supervision and maintaining connection.
To assist parents in guiding their teens through content creation, we offer tips & resources designed to help you support their journey responsibly and safely.
Learn how to get started with YouTube supervision for teens
YouTube Features Supporting Teen Wellbeing
Even when teens are ready for the full YouTube experience, YouTube remains committed to their wellbeing. Several built-in features are designed to promote healthy habits and responsible usage for teenage users.
- Utilize break reminders to encourage your teens to take pauses from watching. For users aged 13-17, take-a-break notifications are automatically set to appear every 60 minutes, promoting balanced screen time.
- Bedtime reminders help teens manage their evening screen time. Set to 10pm by default for users aged 13-17, these notifications gently remind them that it might be time to wind down for the night.
- The autoplay feature, which automatically plays related videos, is disabled by default for users under 18. This prevents endless viewing sessions and encourages more intentional content choices.
- For users 17 and younger, YouTube proactively limits recommendations for certain types of content that could be problematic if viewed repeatedly, such as videos displaying social aggression or intimidation, fostering a more positive viewing environment.
YouTube Kids: A Separate App Designed Just for Kids
For the youngest viewers, YouTube Kids offers a dedicated app experience built from the ground up with safety and simplicity as top priorities. It provides a curated environment for kids to explore, alongside parental tools that empower caregivers to guide and customize their children’s viewing journey effectively.
- Create individual profiles for each child, making the YouTube Kids experience uniquely tailored to them. Profiles allow for personalized content selections and settings, accommodating different ages and interests within the same household.
- Select a content level that aligns with your child’s age group. Choose from “Preschool” for ages 4 and under, “Younger” for ages 5-8, or “Older” for ages 9-12, ensuring the content is developmentally appropriate.
Explore more content with YouTube Kids parent controlsExpand content options by finding videos directly from YouTube and sharing them with your child within YouTube Kids. This feature provides parents with more control over the content available to their children.- Utilize comprehensive parental controls within YouTube Kids to effectively manage your family’s viewing experience. Set screen time limits, block specific videos or channels, and customize other settings to create a safe and balanced environment.
- Enjoy YouTube Kids across multiple devices. Access YouTube Kids conveniently on mobile phones, desktop computers, and Smart TVs, ensuring flexibility for your family’s viewing habits.
YouTube Kids features a carefully selected library of content, which is smaller than the main YouTube app and website. We are dedicated to maintaining a family-friendly environment on YouTube Kids, employing a combination of automated filters, human review, and parent feedback. However, it’s important to note that not all videos undergo manual review. If you encounter any inappropriate content that might have been missed, you can easily flag it for prompt review, helping to improve the app for everyone.
Learn More about YouTube Kids and its features
