YouTube hopes that parental controls will help parents gradually acquaint their older children with age-appropriate content and features.
27/2/2021–|Last Updated: 2/27/202104:02 PM (Mecca)
YouTube announced the launch of a new set of parental controls, which allows parents to have better control over the content that their children can access through the video streaming platform.
YouTube hopes that parental control will help parents gradually acquaint their older children with appropriate content and features outside of the YouTube Kids app.
The new feature is aimed at children who have gone beyond the boundaries of YouTube Kids, and the program will first be launched as an early beta version, with a wider beta version to be introduced in the coming months.
YouTube splits the options for parents to view their children in the 3 levels of their choosing:
- Exploration Level: Generally suitable for children nine years and older.
- Explore further levels: Intended for children 13 and older.
- Most YouTube levels: Allows almost everything except age-restricted content.
And people over the age of 13 can create their own YouTube accounts without supervision in the United States and other countries.
It is unclear what content is allowed at each level, but YouTube states, “The (exploration) level includes video blogs, tutorials, game videos, music clips, news, educational materials, and more.”
As the name suggests, the “Explore More” level features a wide range of videos, as well as live broadcasts of the previously mentioned exploration level.
The company states that “Level (most YouTube content) includes sensitive topics that may be appropriate only for older teens.”
And new supervised tools still rely on user input, human reviews, and machine learning.
The platform realizes that this will not be correct, while acknowledging that it can make some mistakes, which have happened through the YouTube Kids application.
The new parental control options should help parents who have children who feel too restricted with the YouTube Kids app, but who are more vulnerable to exposure to the full YouTube experience.
YouTube can be a dangerous place full of misinformation, so it’s good to see that Google helps give parents more tools to make it easier for their children to receive it.
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