The Google-owned video streaming app for children, YouTube Kids, is set to get a separate web version later this week. Before now, parents have to download the app to give their kids access to a filtered version of YouTube.
The video streaming platform has been under heavy scrutiny in the past few years for reasons that vary from ad targeting to giving children access to disturbing videos.
Aside from dealing with child-exploitative videos posing as family-friendly content, YouTube also had to shut down the comment section in videos with children to prevent pedophilic responses. Recently, an FTC probe investigated whether the platform violated COPPA by collecting data for children under the age of 13.
So, the decision to bring YouTube Kids to the web is not entirely surprising.
According to speculations, the Google-owned company may be preparing for an FTC settlement that would require the company to implement an age-gate on its site.
New Categories on YouTube Kids
Aside from providing a dedicated website for children, YouTube Kids will also introduce new categories of videos. According to the announcement on YouTube Help forums, this is to ensure that its young users can explore in a safer environment.
Parents can now control the videos that their kids can see by selecting from three categories.
- Preschool for kids ages 4 and under
- Younger for children ages 5 to 7
- Older for kids ages 8 to 12
The older category contains a wider variety of videos, including music, family vlogs, and gaming videos.
A Google spokesperson wrote:
“We know that what is great content for a four-year-old may not be great content for a ten-year-old, which is why we want to make it easier for parents to select the right content for their kids on YouTube Kids. Starting today, parents will be able to select from three different age groups to choose the right content for their kid.”
Despite implementing these new measures, the video streaming giant included a friendly reminder that it doesn’t manually review all its videos.
“Our systems work hard to exclude content not suitable for each of these age categories, but not all videos have been manually reviewed,” it wrote.
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