Today, kids & teens around the globe can access a world of possibilities on YouTube. Whether it’s exploring important topics or looking up a video to help with algebra homework, they’ve never known a reality without this world at their fingertips. And as they’ve grown up, so has the internet, and we have too.
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Kids & Teens
We have a long track-record of continuing to deliver & innovate our products, tools, and services to meet the unique developmental needs of kids & teens - and everything we do is guided by five youth principles, which are core to YouTube's work on creating a safer and more enriching environment for young people.
YouTube Kids is an app built from the ground up to be a simpler experience for kids 12 and under to explore, with tools for parents and caregivers to guide their journey.
It includes four viewing experiences that allow parents to decide what content to make available to their kids. For complete control, parents can approve content themselves — or they can choose from categories which feature content that’s appropriate for specific age ranges.
In addition to content settings, parents and caregivers can also:
Our supervised experience for pre-teens (children under 13 or the relevant age in their country/region) is designed for parents who decide their child is ready to explore a broader array of content on the main YouTube app, but still want to supervise their experience.
It offers three content settings that account for different parenting styles and individual differences in child development, with each option offering greater access to YouTube’s world of content. It also offers:
Additional parental controls (e.g. disabling autoplay and reviewing, pausing, and clearing watch history)
Disabling certain features normally available on the main YouTube app (e.g. uploads, writing comments, livechat, livestream, etc.)
Our voluntary supervised experience for teens (ages 13-17 in most countries and regions) allows parents and teens to voluntarily link accounts to help give parents insights about videos their teens create and comments they leave, spark conversations between parents and teens, and provide timely learning opportunities about how to safely create on YouTube.
We also have added safeguards to ensure mature aged content isn’t seen by younger users. So while sometimes content on YouTube doesn't violate our Community Guidelines, it may not be appropriate for viewers under 18. In these cases, we place age-restrictions on the video. This applies to videos, video descriptions, custom thumbnails, live streams, and any other YouTube product or feature.
At YouTube, ensuring age-appropriate experiences for teens begins with users providing their age during account creation. This information allows us to personalize YouTube settings, defaults, and access to content and features, and helps support a safer experience for younger users.
For all U.S. accounts, YouTube employs a dual approach by using self-declared age as well as the application of an age estimation model that uses machine learning to determine whether a user is over or under 18. Regardless of the birthday in the account, this technology enables us to deliver age-appropriate product experiences and protections, treating teens as teens and adults as adults.
How it works: We use AI to interpret a variety of existing signals that help us to determine whether a user is over or under 18. These signals include the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched, or the longevity of the account.
When we identify a teen user, we’ll automatically apply our safeguards, including:
Users have the option to verify that they are 18 or over by using a credit card or a government ID. We only allow users who have been inferred or verified as over 18 to view age-restricted content that may be inappropriate for younger users.
We have some of the strongest safeguards when it comes to protecting our youngest users from harmful content. These are covered by policies found here.
Content that targets young minors and families but contains sexual themes, violence, obscene, or other mature themes not suitable for young audiences, is not allowed on YouTube.
We also regularly update our family product experiences and policies in consultation with experts in children’s media, child development, digital learning, & citizenship from a range of academic, non-profit and clinical backgrounds. This Youth and Families Advisory Committee is a collection of independent experts that weigh in on products, policies and services we offer to young people and families.
In today’s digital-first age, teens face unique challenges when it comes to nurturing and preserving their wellbeing and mental health. We know teens are digital natives, with the internet as a part of their everyday lives - we want to help support them through the new experiences and pressures that come with navigating the online world.
Our Youth and Families Advisory Committee consistently helps us to understand the unique and complex developmental needs of teens to ensure we’re providing the right products & tools to help them navigate and enjoy the broad range of content available to them — while putting their wellbeing first.
"Take a Break and" "Bedtime" reminders appear as full-screen takeovers and are turned on by default for teens. Since their launch, these have served as industry-leading digital wellbeing tools that have helped users better understand and manage their screen time.
Teens’ uploads are set to the most private available setting by default to help them make informed decisions about their online footprint and digital privacy.
Working with our Youth and Families Advisory Committee, we developed safeguards on video sequencing for teens by identifying categories of video that are okay in a single or few views, but could become problematic for some if viewed in repetition. We then developed ways to disperse viewership of those videos for teens globally to prevent repetitive viewing. This includes topics ranging from body comparison to unrealistic financial advice or social aggression.
Crisis resource panels appear when viewers search for certain terms related to suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders. This full page experience enables viewers to prominently see resources for third-party crisis hotlines.
