How To Set Up YouTube Kids’ Parental Controls 

For a while, I’ve resisted handing over my phone to my 5-year-old to let her watch YouTube Kids and there have been multiple times when I’d set her up with a show I approve of only to peek over 15 minutes later and find her watching something I hate (usually Ryan’s Toy Review).

Other parents have had similar complaints about how how easy it’s been for kids to go down a rabbit hole of annoying, weird and sometimes disturbing content in the app.

Now, though, there’s a way to let your kids only watch the good stuff. And there is a lot of good stuff – Sesame Street, National Geographic Kids and PBS Kids, to name a few quality channels.

How to set it up:

1) Open settings.

2) Go to the child’s profile.

3) Select “approved content only.” Then start picking videos and channels for your kids. In this mode, kids are not able to search for content on their own.

While YouTube Kids has mostly been geared for young children, it is also now launching a new “older” feature for 8-12 year olds. This version of the app includes a wider variety of content, like popular music and gaming videos.

You can choose the “older” setting when creating a new profile or updating an existing profile.