YouTube announces ‘supervised experiences’, a new set of restrictions that allow parents to better control what content their children can get on the streaming video platform. According to a blog post, YouTube hopes the filters will help parents slowly introduce their older kids to age-appropriate content and features outside of the YouTube Kids app. The program only starts with an early beta, and a broader beta will be launched in the coming months.
Parents can choose from three levels of rigor, which determine the content that a child may see on their account. There is the “Explore” level, which according to YouTube is “generally suitable” for children aged nine and older, “Explore more”, which is intended for children from 13 years; and ‘Most of YouTube’, which is virtually anything but age-restricted content. In the US and most other countries, people over the age of 13 can create their own unsupervised YouTube accounts.
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It’s not clear what content will be allowed on which levels, but YouTube says the “Explore” level will include “vlogs, tutorials, game videos, music clips, news, educational content, and more.” ‘As the name suggests, the “Explore More” level will include a wider range of videos, as well as live streams for the “Explore” categories above. The company says that ‘most of YouTube’ will contain sensitive topics that may only be suitable for older teens. ‘
Despite its promise, YouTube’s supervised experiences remain a system that relies on user input, human review, and machine learning. YouTube knows that it will not be perfect, and acknowledges that it will ‘make mistakes’, as we saw happen with the Kids app. As such, parents should not view it as a ‘put it and forget’ solution. They will still have to remain vigilant.
Nevertheless, the new content options should help parents with children who feel too limited by the Kids app (which YouTube still recommends for younger children), but are too influential to be exposed to the full YouTube experience. YouTube can be a dangerous place full of misinformation and conspiracy, so it’s good to see how Google gives parents tools to make it easier for their children.