Google Introduces YouTube Kids App: Now Parents to Control What Children Watch
Google is improving its YouTube Kids App to enhance the control over what should their children watch, now making it kid friendly youtube app. The videos and channels to be watched by the children are decided by the parents.
YouTube kids is an independent app for smartphones and tablets. This equips the accessibility to a subset of videos which are available on the main site. There are 70bn views since the app has been launched in 2015. This application is used by 11m families. The most remarkable change in the application is that Google gives parents a great control over which videos their kid can watch.
It may be possible that at later this year, parents will manually validate the individual kid friendly youtube channels or videos that their kids can avail through the application. This kid-friendly YouTube app enables them to pick up a collection of videos to make sure that those picked up videos are appropriate.
Google is also generating channels and videos from other trusted channels like YouTube Kids team and Sesame workshop. It helps the parents to select only specific videos for their kids.
James Beser, who is the product director of YouTube kids app said,
“The collection of videos from trusted partners helps the parents to select each and every video themselves. We put the parents in the driver’s seat. This has never happened before.”
In addition to this, the industry will also minimize the video recommendations when parents disable the search function within the app. Only the videos and channels from verified partners like YouTube Kids team will be accepted. Formerly, recommendations can comprise of the content from any channel or video that can be accessed through the YouTube kids app, other than those verified by Google’s trusted partners.
This week, Google is also expanding the signed-in profiles for YouTube Kids application across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. This implies that parents can create individual accounts for their children on shared devices.
The current version of the YouTube Kids App will still be available for anyone who wants to use it. But, Google will keep enhancing the quality by applying filters for more open selection of kid friendly youtube channels and videos. Parents can flag or block the content which they do not think is appropriate.
New Features of YouTube Kids App
The three new options which will be seen in kid-friendly YouTube app are described as follows:
Contents by YouTube Kids and Other Trusted Partners
The partners of Google are YouTube Kids and others, who will offer a trusted collection on a variety of topics from art and craft, learning, sports, and so much more. This feature enables the parents to select only those topics which they want. A user needs to go to profile settings and choose from the available options of kid friendly youtube channels like sesame workshop and PBS KIDS. More partners will be added soon.
Parents Approved Content
Parents can provide the best guidance to their children via kid-friendly YouTube app. They know better than anyone what their kids should watch. A feature to handpick every channel and video manually will be introduced later this year.
Improved Search-Off Control
If parents search-off within the YouTube kids app, this will limit the number of recommendations and only those channels and videos will appear which are verified by the Google.
Set Timer for Watching Video
It enables parents to set the timer with a specified time limit, after which the app will automatically lock. This prevents kids from consuming more time on the Internet.
The Bottom Line
The goal of YouTube kids App was to facilitate the kids to avail the videos and channels that were engaging, enriching and permitted them to find about their endless interests. The team of Google continued to improve the experience of kid friendly YouTube app for families and children around the world. The focus area is to give the parents more control and make the right decision on what their children should watch or not.