YouTube has become a scary place for parents. Much of what children absorb from it can be educational and good for them. But if there is no filtering, the child is likely to stumble upon something inappropriate.
Not to mention all the time we spend in front of the screen itself. It’s incredibly difficult for parents to manage everything and know exactly what to do. That’s why it’s important to enable parental controls on YouTube as your first line of defense.
Restricted mode: web browser
No matter what age group your child belongs to, the first and quickest thing you can do to make YouTube safer is to enable restricted mode. This feature filters YouTube search results. The content goes through a more thorough removal process to exclude any inappropriate videos.
Another thing that Restricted Mode does is filter out content that has been flagged as inappropriate by the YouTube community. Or content that content creators marked as “for mature audiences only.” You have to keep in mind that there is a lot of content on YouTube. And although Restricted Mode is there to protect children from videos of an explicit nature, it is not 100% effective.
Here’s how to enable YouTube Restricted Mode in your web browser:
- Open YouTube and then select your image (the top right corner of the screen icon that represents your account).
- Scroll to the bottom and click “Restricted Mode: Off.”
- You’ll see a window explaining that this setting will potentially hide adult videos. Select “Enable restricted mode.”
- Select “Lock restricted mode in this browser” so that your child cannot revert these settings.
Your home screen will reload and the content will be filtered. An important thing to remember here is that these settings only apply to that browser. Each of the browsers on all devices must have Restricted Mode enabled separately.
Restricted mode: mobile devices
Let’s face it, kids are more likely to watch YouTube on their tablets and smartphones. That is why it is very important to activate Restricted Mode on their mobile devices, or on yours. The purpose of restricted mode is the same here as in the web browser. It helps with adult content, but it’s not foolproof. Here’s how to enable restricted mode in the YouTube app on mobile devices:
- Launch YouTube and go to your account (upper right corner of the screen).
- Go to settings. And then select “General”.
- Scroll down and you will find Restricted Mode. Use the slider to activate the feature.
Consider the YouTube Kids app
It’s obvious that YouTube doesn’t have very elaborate parental controls. They offer the basic restricted mode, which may be enough if your children are older and you don’t need to control their behavior.
You can download the YouTube Kids app at Play store and apple store. And then proceed to create a profile for your child. Parents can create a profile for each child in the household. In this way, YouTube recommendations will be better adapted to each child.
How do you create a YouTube Kids profile? A parent must log in for profiles to be accessible. You can create up to eight profiles per account and this is how they are created:
- Launch the YouTube Kids app and sign in.
- Review the YouTube Kids parental consent information and tap “Done” if you agree.
- Start setting up a profile for your child by providing a date of birth. The app will use this to set up an age-appropriate experience for your child.
- Choose the content experience for your child
- Preschool (ages 4 and under)
- Younger (5 to 7 years old)
- Seniors (8 to 12 years old)
- Approve content yourself
- You’ll be guided through the parenting features of the YouTube Kids app. There you can find all the parental control settings and how to block videos and report them.
- Your child can now safely use the YouTube Kids app. You can always go back and change the settings if necessary.
Note: The “Approve content yourself” option means you can customize what your child can see. What videos, channels or collections. Sometimes there is an overlap with age and content, and you have to intervene.
How to report inappropriate videos
When it comes to YouTube, it’s not difficult to come across an age-inappropriate video. If a video with adult content goes unnoticed in restricted mode, it doesn’t mean that reporting it will matter much. First of all, there were no guarantees.
But with the YouTube Kids app, the standards are different. All content is intended for children of different ages. Therefore, if you think a video or channel is inappropriate you should report it to YouTube and let them investigate. This is how you do it:
- Open the app and go to the Watch page of the video you want to report.
- Select “More” in the top corner of the screen.
- Select “Report.”
- Choose the reason you are reporting the video (inappropriate audio or images, or something else).
When you report that video, it will no longer appear in the YouTube Kids app. But simply reporting it doesn’t mean the video will be permanently removed.
Frequent questions
Can I completely block YouTube on a device?
If you simply don’t want your child to access YouTube, there are some things you can do. Just keep in mind that you will need to block YouTube in browsers and block the app.
If your child uses iOS or Android, use Screen Time or Digital Wellbeing respectively. Apple’s Screen Time will allow you to disable certain apps while blocking specific websites.
The same goes for Android parental controls. Simply link their Gmail account to yours and manage the content you want them to access from your phone’s settings.
Is there a way to prevent my child from turning off restrictive mode?
Kids are smart these days and most can bypass any parental controls in a matter of minutes. If your child uses YouTube Kids, he’s in luck because she can create a 4-digit PIN number (or ask him for the answer to a random math equation). If your child uses YouTube and you rely on restrictive mode to block content, she can simply disable the option, so it’s best to set up some parental controls using the native features of your operating system (i.e. Android or iOS).
Make YouTube a safe place
No matter how much you trust your children, the dangers of the Internet cannot be underestimated. Their young minds are not prepared for all they can be exposed to unless they are protected. YouTube can be particularly tricky in that department. It’s understandably an exciting place for kids to explore. But with some restrictions, parents’ minds can be put at ease. And the YouTube Kids app is probably the safest way for younger kids.
