Outlook Business Desk
YouTube has rolled out new features focusing on children and teenagers, including improved parental controls, age-appropriate content guidelines, and simplified account management to enhance safety and responsible usage across the platform.
Supervised teen accounts on YouTube now allow parents to limit Shorts usage or switch it off entirely. This gives families the flexibility to manage screen time during study, travel, or leisure periods.
YouTube now lets parents personalise Bedtime and Take a Break reminders for supervised teen accounts. These updates aim to support balanced screen time and promote healthier viewing routines for teenagers.
YouTube has also unveiled new principles defining quality content for teenage viewers. Created with input from child development specialists and researchers, these guidelines will guide creators and adjust recommendations to favour educational and informative videos.
YouTube’s recommendation system for teen accounts will prioritise higher-quality videos that meet new content guidelines. Lower-quality or unsuitable content will be shown less often, helping teens access safer and more educational videos.
YouTube’s updated sign-up process allows parents to create new child accounts and switch between family profiles effortlessly. This simplifies managing multiple users on shared devices while ensuring age-appropriate settings for every child.
The updates aim to reduce confusion when devices are shared among family members. Parents can now ensure each child uses the correct account settings and receives age-appropriate video recommendations.
YouTube emphasises that these updates build on over a decade of youth-focused products, including YouTube Kids, reflecting the platform’s ongoing commitment to child safety, wellbeing, and responsible social media usage.