YouTube Kids now allows parents to whitelist any video or channel

Abner Li | Sep 13 2018 - 9:52 am PT

In light of YouTube’s algorithmic approach to finding appropriate videos for kids failing, the Google division turned to human curation in April. YouTube Kids is now launching the ability for parents to pre-approve every video and channel available their child, while adding a new experience geared towards older kids.

Noting that this has been “highly requested,” the new parental control allows users to “handpick every video and channel available to their child in the app.”

When the “Approved content only” option is checked, children will “only be able to watch content that you have approved.” Parents can allow videos, channels, and collections, with the ability to search YouTube Kids to find content. Meanwhile, children will not be able to search when this mode is selected.

You can pick videos or channels, and you can also select collections from our partners or the YouTube Kids team.

This whitelist is available globally today on Android and coming soon to iOS.

Meanwhile, YouTube Kids is adding a “new experience” for children 8-12 years old. This “Older” category includes music and gaming videos to compliment the existing “Younger” group geared towards preschool and elementary school children with sing-alongs and other age-appropriate learning videos.

What’s more, YouTube Kids is growing up with our users. We have launched a new experience geared toward 8-12 year olds that includes additional new content, like popular music and gaming videos.

Parents can change between the two options and parent-approved content at any time by heading to and updating a child’s profile page. The option will also be presented during setup when parents create a new profile.

This experience in YouTube Kids is rolling out now in the U.S. and will expand globally overtime. In today’s blog post, YouTube again acknowledge the extent of their systems and asks parents to flag any inappropriate content for manual review:

We work hard to make videos in the app family friendly, but no system is perfect. It’s always possible that a parent may find something they don’t want their child to watch in the “Younger” or “Older” experiences. If this happens, we ask that parents block and flag the video for review by our team. This makes YouTube Kids better for everyone.