Navigating YouTube for Families: A Guide to Safe and Supervised Viewing

Every family has a unique approach to media and technology. Recognizing this, YouTube offers a range of choices to help you determine the best experience for your family. We continuously update our platform, incorporating feedback from our advisory committee of independent experts, to cater to the diverse needs of Youtube Families.

Discover Age-Appropriate YouTube Experiences for Your Children

YouTube understands the varying needs of families with kids of different ages. That’s why we provide different pathways for children, pre-teens, and teenagers to safely explore the world of video. Whether you’re looking for a closely managed experience or features to support your teen’s wellbeing, YouTube offers solutions for youtube families.

Supervised YouTube Accounts: A Parent’s Guide

For parents who believe their pre-teens* are ready to explore the broader YouTube universe, we offer a supervised experience. This option allows you to manage your child’s access while providing them with a wider range of content than YouTube Kids. It comes equipped with content settings suitable for pre-teens, robust parental controls, and digital wellbeing protections, ensuring a safer online environment for youtube families.

• Create a supervised Google Account for YouTube

  Manage your child’s YouTube experience across apps, websites, Smart TVs, and gaming consoles, offering comprehensive control for youtube families.

• Choose from three content settings

  Select content settings generally aligned with age-based content ratings, starting at 9+, to ensure age-appropriate viewing for youtube families.

• Parental Controls with Family Link for YouTube Family SafetySet parental controls

  Utilize Google’s Family Link app to block channels, set screen time limits, and adjust other parental controls, giving youtube families greater management.

• Before they explore, help them become safe, prepared users of YouTube

  Explore our parent guide to initiate important conversations about online safety and responsible YouTube usage within youtube families.

While the supervised YouTube experience offers a vast library of videos, it’s important for youtube families to understand that it’s significantly larger than YouTube Kids. Our systems are designed to filter out inappropriate content, but they are not infallible. Some videos may still be unsuitable for children. If you prefer a more controlled environment, YouTube Kids might be a more suitable choice for your youtube families.

Learn More about the YouTube Supervised Experience and how it can benefit youtube families.

Supervised YouTube for Teenagers: Fostering Responsible Content Creation

As pre-teens transition into teenagers*, their interests naturally evolve. YouTube’s supervised experience adapts to this growth, helping you maintain open communication with your teens as they begin to engage more actively with the platform, including creating and sharing their own content. This provides youtube families with tools to navigate this new phase of online engagement.

• Timely Email Notifications

  Receive email notifications when your teen uploads a new video or starts a livestream, keeping youtube families informed about their teen’s online activity.

• Channel Activity

  Gain shared insights into your teen’s channel activity, including video uploads, comments, and subscriptions, promoting transparency and understanding within youtube families.

• Easy Account Linking

  Easily link your account with your teen’s account via QR code or a shared link, simplifying the setup process for youtube families.

To further assist youtube families, we offer tips & resources to guide conversations and support your teen’s journey into content creation.

Learn how to get started with supervised accounts for teens and empower your youtube families.

YouTube’s Wellbeing Features for Teenagers

Even when teens are ready for the full YouTube experience, YouTube remains committed to their wellbeing. Several built-in features are designed to support healthy habits and responsible usage for teenagers within youtube families.

• Reminders that tell your teens to take a break

  Take-a-break notifications, set to appear every 60 minutes for users aged 13-17 (and enabled by default), encourage balanced screen time for youtube families.

• Notifications let teens know it might be time for bed

  Bedtime reminders, set for 10 pm for users aged 13-17 (and enabled by default), help establish healthy sleep schedules within youtube families.

• The next video doesn’t automatically play for your teens

  The autoplay feature is disabled by default for users under 18, preventing endless viewing sessions and promoting mindful content consumption within youtube families.

• Limitations on the repeated viewing of certain content types

  For users 17 and younger, YouTube automatically limits recommendations for certain content categories that could be problematic if viewed repetitively, such as videos displaying social aggression, safeguarding youtube families from potentially harmful content loops.

YouTube Kids: A Dedicated App for Younger Children

For younger children, YouTube Kids offers a separate app specifically designed to be a safer and simpler environment. Built from the ground up with kids in mind, it provides robust tools for parents and caregivers to guide their child’s exploration, making it an ideal choice for youtube families with younger viewers.

• Create individual profiles as unique as your kids

  Create personalized profiles for each child, each with unique content selections and settings, tailoring the experience for each member of youtube families.

• Choose a content level based on your kid’s age

  Select from three content levels tailored to different age groups: Pre-school (4 and under), Younger (5-8), and Older (9-12), ensuring age-appropriate content discovery for youtube families.

• Explore More Family-Friendly Content in YouTube KidsGive them even more to explore

  Discover a wider range of content from the main YouTube platform and share it directly within your child’s YouTube Kids profile, expanding family-friendly viewing options for youtube families.

• Set screen time limits, block videos, and more

  Utilize comprehensive parental controls to manage your family’s YouTube Kids experience, including setting screen time limits and blocking specific videos, providing youtube families with full control.

• Fun on every screen

  Enjoy YouTube Kids across mobile devices, desktops, and Smart TVs, making it accessible for youtube families in various settings.

YouTube Kids offers a curated content library that is smaller than the main YouTube platform. We are dedicated to maintaining a family-friendly environment on YouTube Kids, employing a combination of automated filters, human review, and parent feedback. While we strive for accuracy, not all videos undergo manual review. If you encounter any inappropriate content, you can easily flag it for prompt review, contributing to a safer experience for all youtube families.

Learn More about YouTube Kids and discover if it’s the right choice for your youtube families.