YouTube Kids, Google’s VOD streaming service targeted at kids, is now available on Apple TV streaming boxes. The YouTube Kids app can now be downloaded on App Store in the UK, US, and other countries and can be used with or without a Google login.
YouTube Kids comes with its key parental controls, where parents can set viewing limits, content restrictions based on age, and other limits. In 2018, YouTube introduced this feature to restrict content to human-approved videos. YouTube Kids is meant to give children a safer alternative to YouTube, where even ‘Restricted Mode’ can let through violent content and other things parents and caretakers don’t want kids to consume.
Last year, YouTube disabled comments on videos in an effort to stop predatory behavior and also reached a $170 million with the Federal Trade Commission over violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Act (COPPA), putting into place new rules for kids’ video, but creators said the rules were confusing and resulted in lost revenue.
One can sign in to their account to transfer existing parental controls to the Apple TV, and Google allows to change the settings from the tablet or phone app. YouTube Kids can be restricted to specific videos and channels approved by parents as well as allowing kids to search for anything within the confines of the machine- and human-curated catalogue.
Launched in 2015, YouTube Kids is meant as a safer environment for children to browse and watch YouTube content, but it’s not been without its controversies. It’s essential to remember that completely unsupervised YouTube viewing, of the Kids app or otherwise, is never a good idea.
YouTube Kids still offers more features that can help caretakers prevent harmful content from being viewed by children, including one that lets them whitelist specific videos or channels.