While many parents appreciate YouTube Kids in order to shield their little ones from inappropriate content on the main platform, YouTube has also realised it could be too limiting for some. Full-blown YouTube is too much for young teenagers to handle, so it is introducing a third option for parents. New supervised accounts are launching for teens and tweens (aged 10-14).
Read: SSD storage expansion on PlayStation 5 to be unlocked soon
James Beser, Director of Product Management, Kids and Family at YouTube, said that “we’ve heard from parents and older children that tweens and teens have different needs, which weren’t being fully met by our products. As children grow up, they have insatiable curiosity and need to gain independence and find new ways to learn, create, and belong.”
YouTube has developed the supervised account concept by working with parents and psychology experts. It will offer three tiers of content settings – Explore, Explore More and Most of YouTube. The general guidance is that Explore is for the 9+ age group, Explore More is for 13+, and Most of YouTube offers access to everything except age-restricted content and sensitive topics deemed only appropriate for older teens.
It helps parents manage their kids’ content consumption on the platform to make the shift from YouTube Kids to full YouTube more progressive. For many there is a huge gap in the content being offered on YouTube Kids to the full YouTube platform. It meant that many kids created their own accounts with fake details to access full YouTube without their parents’ consent, according to experts. The platform hopes that the progressive approach will help the parent curate much of the content their kids consume, without boring the child to a point where they turn away and feel the need to use fake accounts.
For now, the supervised account is being offered in an early beta for families under the age of consent. Feedback will help refine the features before expanding it to a wider audience.
