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YouTube Creates Supervised Account Option to Protect Young Users

Making the Social Media World a Safer Place

YouTube has launched a new option that allows parents to monitor their child’s viewing activity – a responsible move, considering the increasing popularity of the platform amongst kids.

YouTube is a big place for a small person to roam freely – the site has nooks and crannies that might be not be suitable for younger viewers. However, with many youngsters owning a personal tablet or phone these days, YouTube is, arguably, more accessible and influential than any TV channel or network.

YouTube has a responsibility to protect its host of younger users. Creating ‘YouTube for Kids’ was the first step – a separate, child-friendly zone, designed for kids to explore the video-sharing world, without risk of them stumbling across any inappropriate content. However at a point, pre-teens have a natural desire to feel more “grown up” and advance to the main YouTube site.

That’s where YouTube’s new option comes in – tweens and teens can explore the platform through a supervised account, their activity monitored by their parents via a connected experience.

As explained by YouTube, “Over the last year, we’ve worked with parents and experts across the globe in areas related to child safety, child development, and digital literacy to develop a solution for parents of tweens and teens. In the coming months, we’ll launch a new experience in beta for parents to allow their children to access YouTube through a supervised Google Account. This supervised experience will come with content settings and limited features. We’ll start with an early beta for families with kids under the age of consent to test and provide feedback, as we continue to expand and improve the experience.”

With this new option, parents can choose from three levels of supervision for their children’s activity:

  1. Explore: For children ready to advance from YouTube Kids to the main YouTube site, this setting will feature an array of videos generally suitable for viewers ages 9+, including vlogs, tutorials, gaming videos, music clips, news, educational content and more.
  2. Explore More: This setting will provide users with a wider range of content, typically suitable for viewers ages 13+. It will also included live streams in the same categories as “Explore.”
  3. Most of YouTube: This setting will have almost all videos on YouTube available, apart from age-restricted content, and it includes sensitive topics that might only be appropriate for older teens.

[Image Creds: YouTube Official Blog]

Within this option, YouTube has also disabled in-app purchases, creation and comment features. As these third-party tools get developed, parents will be able to tailor these options to fit their individual parenting style.

This new option shapes a safer and more enjoyable online environment – parents can regulate their children’s usage without molly-coddling, whilst the kids can bask in a feeling of independence as they explore the wacky and wonderful world of YouTube.

YouTube announced that it will be rolling out the new experience over the next few months.

Finally, for our previous #SocialShort, click here.

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