YouTube is launching a "supervised” version, which is essentially a middle-ground between YouTube Kids and the main site. This is to let parents offer an age-appropriate YouTube experience to children who outgrow the content in YouTube Kids.
The new supervised mode will be available to children over 13, and will come with content settings and limited features.
The various access tiers would allow parents to control what their children can watch.
"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," YouTube said.
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Content options of parents
Youtube said it understands that every child is unique and reaches different developmental stages at different times. It also said different people have different parenting styles.
Hence, the supervised Google account gives parents a choice of three settings for children. These are “Explore”, “Explore More”, and “Most of YouTube”.
Explore: For children ready to move on from YouTube Kids and explore content on YouTube, this setting will feature a broad range of videos generally suitable for viewers ages 9+, including vlogs, tutorials, gaming videos, music clips, news, educational content and more.
Explore More: With content generally suitable for viewers ages 13+, this setting will include an even larger set of videos, and also live streams in the same categories as “Explore.”
Most of YouTube: This setting will contain almost all videos on YouTube, except for age-restricted content, and it includes sensitive topics that may only be appropriate for older teens.
It is a work in progress
In the new mode in-app purchases will be disabled, as well as creation and comments features, though parents will eventually have variable controls for each element.
YouTube said its moderation system will use “a mix of user input, machine learning and human review” to determine which videos are suitable based on age ratings, but also says that it “will make mistakes and will continue to evolve over time.”
YouTube said it will be rolling out the new experience over the coming months.
It also said it would launch an ongoing campaign that features creators discussing themes like bullying and harassment, misinformation, digital well-being and more.
