YouTube Music will soon work for supervised kid accounts enrolled with Family Link

Abner Li | Jan 20 2022 - 2:53 pm PT

In an email to Family Link parents today, Google previewed that kids will soon be able to access YouTube Music and more parts of the video site.

Before the shutdown in December of 2020, Google Play Music let kids under 13 have their own libraries. YouTube Music is only now getting a similar capability as part of the broader ability to let supervised child accounts graduate from YouTube Kids to the main YouTube app.

This supervised YouTube experience aimed at older kids and teens was first previewed in February of 2021, but the feature — which is still officially in beta — looks to now be more widely available.

Kids will be able to access YouTube Music for Android, iOS, and web “in the coming weeks.” These supervised accounts will also be able to access YouTube on smart TVs.

Google still notes that the “videos and music available to your child’s account on YouTube, YouTube Kids, and YouTube Music are determined by your choice of content settings.” Parents can choose between three tiers:

Explore: For children ready to move on from YouTube Kids and explore content on YouTube, this setting will feature a broad range of videos generally suitable for viewers ages 9+, including vlogs, tutorials, gaming videos, music clips, news, educational content, and more.
Explore More: With content generally suitable for viewers ages 13+, this setting will include an even larger set of videos, and also live streams in the same categories as “Explore.”
Most of YouTube: This setting will contain almost all videos on YouTube, except for age-restricted content, and it includes sensitive topics that may only be appropriate for older teens.

This should address a big pain point around music listening with Google’s Family Link system. Some had to subscribe their kids to alternate streaming services even though they had YouTube Premium family plans. The change certainly took some time for YouTube to accomplish and was the result of “feedback from families who use our products.”