YouTube’s ‘supervised experiences’ help parents choose what content their children can see

YouTube is announcing “supervised experiences”, a new set of restrictions that allow parents to have better control over what content their children can use on the streaming platform. according to a blog post, YouTube hopes the filters will help parents gradually familiarize their older children with age-appropriate content and features outside of the YouTube Kids app. The program will first launch with an initial beta, with a comprehensive beta rolling out “in the coming months”.

Parents have three levels of strictness to choose from, which determines whether a child is allowed to watch on their own account. There is the “Explore” level, which YouTube says is “generally suitable” for children at nine and later for “Explore More”, which is for children 13 and up; And “most of YouTube,” which is pretty much everything except age-restricted content. In america, And most other countries, People over the age of 13 can create their own unsecured YouTube accounts.

Image: YouTube

It is unclear at what level the content will be allowed, but YouTube says that the “explore” level will have “vlogs, tutorials, gaming videos, music clips, news, educational content and more.” As the name suggests, the “Explore More” level will feature a wide range of videos, as well as live streams for the above “Explore” categories. The company says that “most of YouTube” will “contain sensitive topics that may only be appropriate for older teens.”

For all its promises, YouTube’s supervised experience is still a system that relies on user input, human reviews, and machine learning. YouTube knows it won’t be right, acknowledging that it will “make mistakes”, which we’ve seen with the Kids app. As such, parents should not think of it as a “set and forget it” solution. They will still need to be vigilant.

Nevertheless, new content options should help parents with children who feel too limited by the Kids app (which YouTube still recommends for younger children), but are exposed to the full YouTube experience Are very impressive to come. YouTube can be a dangerous place full of misinformation and conspiracy, so Google loves to give parents the tools to help make their children comfortable.