How To Use YouTube’s Parental Controls

YouTube is synonymous with online video. It’s also had a long, checkered history when it comes to content moderation and parental controls. To its credit, the platform has greatly improved the flexibility and efficacy of its parental controls, though there is still plenty of room for improvement.

We’re going to walk you through the basics of YouTube parental controls so that you can rest easy and your kids can get the most out of their online experience.

Choose your flavor of YouTube

YouTube now has two different experiences you can choose from when setting up accounts for your kids. The first is YouTube Kids, which contains only content intended for children age 12 and younger.

The second option is a supervised account, which allows your kids to watch standard YouTube, but with limits on certain features and content restrictions that can be managed by the parent who sets up the account. This is a much less restrictive option that allows older kids and teens to view more useful content like science, arts and crafts, news, and DIY videos.

While this dual-track system makes YouTube’s parental controls a bit more confusing than those of other platforms, it’s still a marked improvement over the previous versions.

Setting up YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids is available as an app for Apple or Android, or as a web page. You can sign in using your own account, or you can use YouTube Kids without signing in, simply by completing a math problem to prove that you’re an adult.

Once you’re into the app, you have four possible content settings:

• ​Preschool (Ages 4 and under)
• Younger (Ages 5–8)
• Older (Ages 9–12)
• Approve content yourself

The first three are your standard age-based content filters. As I’ve mentioned before, while age-gating content is the most common form of parental controls, it’s also the worst form of parental controls, and YouTube Kids is a good example of why it’s terrible.

Age restrictions are based on the assumption that all content exists on a linear spectrum from most to least appropriate, with content directed at the youngest audience being suitable for everyone. That’s a good system to stop little kids from sneaking into a slasher film, but it makes no sense on YouTube Kids.

A toddler might not like Bill Nye the Science Guy or watching someone show off their Minecraft builds. It’s not because these videos will traumatize them. It would just be boring because they lack the context or the vocabulary to connect with these topics. Likewise, a 10-year-old probably doesn’t want to watch videos about nursery rhymes and the ABCs. Unfortunately, age restrictions only work in one direction. Some of the content I most despise on YouTube is brain rot directed at little kids, and there’s no way to block that stuff with age restrictions.

Fortunately, YouTube Kids has also added a fourth option (if you sign in) that allows you to whitelist specific videos, essentially curating a list of all the content you want your kids to be able to watch. I wish this option had been around when my kids were younger, as it actually gives parents meaningful control over what their children watch. The only downsides are that it’s a labor-intensive approach (since you have to approve every video) and you’re limited to the relatively small amount of content that’s on YouTube Kids. Still, kudos to YouTube Kids for being one of the few platforms to offer this option.

Setting up a supervised YouTube account

Supervised YouTube accounts can be set up on a shared device where the parent is signed in, or on the kid’s device if their account is linked to the parent’s Google account. Supervised accounts can be accessed through the YouTube website or through the YouTube app.

Supervised YouTube accounts have three content settings:

• Explore
• Explore More
• Most of YouTube

All supervised accounts have certain features disabled, such as the ability to post videos, buy memberships and merchandise, and create a public profile picture. Supervised accounts also have personalized ads disabled, which is good. They also connect with the parental controls in the Google Family Link app. By choosing a content setting, you can enable or disable additional features.

Explore limits the available videos to content appropriate to kids roughly ages 9 and up. Livestreams are disabled, as are comment sections.

Explore More allows a much wider range of videos, roughly appropriate for kids 13 and up. This setting allows kids to watch livestreams and to read, but not write, comments.

Most of YouTube allows you to watch any video on YouTube that isn’t marked as 18+. As with Explore More, you can also watch livestreams and read comments.

Supervised accounts fill a much-needed gap for parents. Previously, the only options you had were to keep your kids confined to the kiddie pool or to chuck them straight into the ocean. Now you can let them access the most useful parts of YouTube while still providing them with some guidance.

How to change content settings

You can change the content settings for your kids’ supervised YouTube account at any time with just a few simple steps:

1. Go to your YouTube on the web or in the app, and click on your Account.
2. Select Parent settings.
3. Select the account of the child you want to edit.
4. Under YouTube Settings, click the Edit button next to content settings.
5. Select the content option you want for your child.

The bottom line: YouTube is heading in the right direction

Ever since connection speeds became fast enough to make online video practical, YouTube has been the place to watch internet videos. It’s come a long way from the Wild West of the early internet, though not all of the changes have been good. Those of us who grew up on the internet have gotten pretty good at wading through the endless stream of AI slop, ragebaiters, and shady influencers to get to the content we want, but that’s a skill that kids still need to develop.

YouTube has some of the better parental controls you’ll find on a video platform, but there’s still a lot to be desired. While the supervised account thankfully takes more into account than just rote content filtering, its features are still built around a framework of age-gating. The different content settings would make for very well-thought-out defaults, but you can’t, for example, allow your kids to watch livestreams while still blocking the comments section. It would be easy to give parents the ability to customize these settings, and it’s a bit frustrating that YouTube got so close…

There are also the usual limitations to YouTube’s parental controls. If you sign out, you get the unfiltered monstrosity that is YouTube with no parental controls or customized algorithm. Age-based filters are also imperfect because YouTube can’t individually vet the appropriateness of every video that gets uploaded. You can supplement the built-in controls with other parental control tools, but as always, there’s no substitute for good communication and involvement in your kids’ online experience.

All things considered, YouTube has greatly improved its parental controls to become some of the best on the internet. The constant changes make it a bit difficult to keep track of everything, so be sure to check back to stay in the loop.