If you’ve allowed your child access to YouTube for even 5 minutes, you’ve probably realized YouTube can quickly go to very weird, very not-so-safe places for kids. YouTube has a “kid safe” version called YouTube Kids.
This guide will walk you through:
Setting up a YouTube Kids account
BLOCKING content on YouTube kids (even if it’s “appropriate”)
Blocking content on YouTube (NOT YouTube Kids) for a YouTube Kids account
Allowing content on YouTube that is usually blocked (“whitelisting”)
YouTube Kids vs. Supervised YouTube account vs. regular YouTube
YouTube Kids is YouTube’s attempt to give curated, child-friendly content and “safe” video browsing. The display is much easier for kids to navigate. They can simply swipe through video options (and search if given the permission).
How successful “safe browsing” on YouTube kids is is up for debate; to show up on YouTube kids, channels must designate their content as “appropriate for kids”. However, that content may still be scary, poorly made, or inappropriate for a child depending on a family’s preferences. Also, YouTube kids videos do not contain paid advertisements. While this sounds good initially, this means thousands of channels on YouTube who make appropriate content for kids cannot be viewed because they rely on advertisers. In addition, this means videos on YouTube Kids may be “advertisements in disguise” such as Ryan’s World videos showing him “unbox” toys.
You can also allow your child to watch videos on regular YouTube. There are ways of controlling what is suggested to you on YouTube and making it safer, without having to make a YouTube Kids account.
If you have a slightly older child who you feel can have access to the traditional YouTube layout, you may consider a Supervised YouTube account. This allows you to decide what content they can search for and see (much like YouTube kids) and see a child’s browsing history. This is a good option for kids who are old enough to navigate the internet and do not need a simplified display like YouTube Kids.
How to get YouTube kids
YouTube kids can be accessed via an app or by going to YouTubekids.com. You will be prompted to “Get a parent to unlock the app”. Clicking “I’m a parent” will bring you to an age confirmation page, followed by a video. The video explains you can sign in to customize controls, and save those credentials for the future. This requires that YOU, the parent, have a YouTube account. If you already have a YouTube account, you can select it and then click “sign in”. You will have to read a consent document and enter your YouTube password (I use Google to access my YouTube account, so in my case I enter my google password).
Setting up a YouTube Kids account for your child
After signing in to the app or YoutubeKids.com as an adult, you’ll be asked to give your child a profile. You’ll enter their name and age, and choose an icon for them. Then you’ll select content settings (YouTube Kids will recommend a setting based on their age, which you can accept or change). If you want your child to only see things you have approved, scroll to the left and choose “Approve Content Yourself”. You’ll then be prompted to selectively approve content from YouTube kids for your child.
It’ll then give you a short “parent feature tour”. At this point you can add another child account, or if you’d like to immediately make settings changes, click the lock in the lower right corner, answer the verification question, and then choose “timer” to choose time limits for watching, or click the settings cog to change settings.
To change content settings for your child: Click the lock in the lower right corner (upper right on desktop), click the settings cog, then click your child’s name. From here, you can change the content settings based on age, you can turn off the ability to search, unblock certain videos, and toggle on/off watch and search history:
Turning off the watch history and search history will help limit “recommended” content from being shown to your child. Turning off the ability to search means that children can only watch approved videos and cannot search for content. Unblocking videos from this menu does not unblock regular YouTube content. Instead, it unblocks all YouTube kids content.
From the main YouTube kids menu, click on your child’s name and you’ll see the YouTube kids “home page” for kids. There are small icons at the top of the screen that present different categories of videos you can switch between. What displays in those categories is random based on YouTube kids approved content that is appropriate for your child’s age.
How to block a video on YouTube Kids (that has been chosen by YouTube kids to show your child)
Just because YouTube thinks a video is appropriate for your child, doesn’t mean you will think it’s appropriate. You can block videos or channels even if YouTube thinks it’s appropriate. When viewing a video from the home page, click/touch the three little dots in the lower right corner of the video. Select “block video”. You’ll have to answer a verification question and then it’ll block the video:
To block an entire YouTube Kids channel (on YouTube kids)
Click/select a video so that it opens in full screen. Then click the three little dots in the top right corner, select “block video” and then select “Block entire channel: [Channel Name]”. You’ll have to answer a verification question:
How to block content on YouTube itself, (NOT just on YouTube kids)
When your child has a kid profile on YouTube that is linked to a parent account, you can not only control their settings in YouTube Kids, but you can also customize what they can see on YouTube itself. This is super important because this blocks the channel on YouTube Kids as well as YouTube. This way, if you give your child access to regular YouTube in a pinch, they still won’t see blocked channels. (Keep in mind, they WILL still see other channels that may not be appropriate, which is why YouTube kids is more controlled and therefore ‘safer’).
To block YouTube channels for your child on a computer:
- Go to the account page for the video’s account. So, if you want to block all videos by the YouTube Channel “Saturday Night Live,” you would either search for “Saturday Night Live” and click on their account, OR you could open one of their videos, and then click on their account icon
- From the account page for the account you wish to block, select “About” from the top of the page. This is located underneath the “subscribe” button in the right corner and is next to the Magnifying Glass icon.
- Now, click the “flag” icon, which is on the right side of the screen, underneath “stats”
- Click “Block channel for kids”
- Click “Continue” (this page is making sure you know that YouTube can block a channel but cannot guarantee that content won’t be available elsewhere)
- Now, select the child’s account that you want this account to be blocked for. This is very important if you have multiple kids; you can customize the blocked channels for each of your child’s accounts.
To block YouTube channels from a mobile device:
- Go to the account page for the video’s account. So, if you want to block all videos by the YouTube Channel “Saturday Night Live,” you would either search for “Saturday Night Live” and click on their account, OR you could open one of their videos, and then click on their account icon
- From the account page for the account you wish to block, select the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the page, next to the magnifying glass.
- Click “Block channel for kids”
- Click “Continue” (this page is making sure you know that YouTube can block a channel but cannot guarantee that content won’t be available elsewhere)
- Now, select the child’s account that you want this account to be blocked for. This is very important if you have multiple kids; you can customize the blocked channels for each of your child’s accounts.
If you want to supervise your child’s YouTube experience but you do NOT want them to have a YouTube kids account (or they feel too old for one) you have another option: set them up with a “supervised” YouTube account
How to give your child access to blocked content on YouTube Kids (whitelisting)
First of all, why would you want to give access to blocked content? If it’s blocked by YouTube kids, doesn’t that mean the content is bad? Not necessarily. YouTube Kids (and Supervised accounts with age limits) display content that has been specifically tagged as safe for children. This is a designation that creators give their videos, but doesn’t mean all the content is actually appropriate for all kids (see above, with how to block channels on YouTube Kids). Creators who rely on ad revenue from paid partnerships, for example, are automatically blocked from YouTube Kids. There are thousands of accounts whose content is appropriate for kids but will be blocked from YouTube Kids due to their account settings.
For example: If you search for “Cooking” on YouTube Kids (for 5-8 year olds), you will find this, among other things:
But you would NOT find actual cooking instruction videos that you might find on channels like PBS like America’s Test Kitchen. You also would have a harder time find more instruction-based videos for kids, such as this:
You as the parent can “whitelist” (allow) blocked content for your child’s account. To do this, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your (adult) YouTube account, either on the website or the app
- Search for the video (or channel) you’d like to whitelist for your child
- Click the three little dots in the upper right corner of the video (or the channel page)
- Click “share”
- Click “With Kids”
- Select the kids you’d like to have access to this video (or channel)
To ACCESS this “whitelisted content,” kids must do the following:
- Open YouTube kids
- When the “dashboard” comes up, swipe left
- You will now see an icon above that looks like a piece of mail and says “shared”
- All shared content, videos, and channels will display here
- If you set your child’s YouTube kids account settings to “Approved Content Only” then that means the only things they will see are things you approve of in YouTube kids OR things you Whitelist from YouTube using the steps above.
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