The YouTube that your children and teenagers love, with the protections that you want
Children and teenagers come to YouTube for the content that brings them joy. And with YouTube's accounts built for children and teenagers, you can feel good that they're here too.
Younger children
A separate app made just for children.
- Choose from three age-based content settings to find the best viewing experience for each of your children. All 'Made for Kids' content on YouTube Kids abides by our quality content principles
- Use parental controls to set screen time limits, approve what your children watch through the 'Approved content only' setting, block videos and channels, and more
- Watch on all devices across mobile, desktop and smart TVs
Older children
Child accounts on YouTube, supervised by you.
- Choose the content setting that's best for your child and block channels that you don't approve of. All 'Made for Kids' content on YouTube abides by our quality content principles
- Set time management controls to limit scrolling on the Shorts feed and customise reminders for breaks and bedtime
- All child accounts have default protections, like auto-play being off and certain features being disabled like uploading content to YouTube
Teenagers
Teen accounts on YouTube, with the option to supervise.
- When a parent supervises a teen account, parents can gain insights into their teenager's YouTube channel activity and enable parental controls, like limiting scrolling on the Shorts feed.
- We prioritise content recommendations from creators that adhere to our high-quality content standards for teenagers.
- All teen accounts have default protections, like break and bedtime reminders, or all YouTube uploads being private by default. Some features are blocked until a teenager turns 16.
Built-in protections for all children and teenagers
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Quality content standards for children and teenagers
YouTube equips creators with content quality principles to help them make age-appropriate and enriching content for children and teenagers. For channels and videos made for children, YouTube provides an extra layer of protection by removing features like leaving comments and switching off notifications.
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Time management controls
To encourage healthy digital habits, all child and teen accounts on YouTube receive default nudges to take breaks and go to bed. Parents can customise these reminders and set the amount of time for scrolling the Shorts feed in the Family Centre.
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Limits on repeat viewing of certain content
For teenagers watching a broader range of topics on YouTube, there are automatic limits to avoid repeated recommendations of videos related to topics including comparing physical features, idealising weight or displaying social aggression. -
Stricter defaults for teenagers when they upload
Users must be 13 or older (or the relevant age in your country) to create videos or Shorts on YouTube. Video uploads are set to private by default for all teen accounts, and teenagers must be 16 or older to livestream.
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Mental health tools
When viewers search for terms related to suicide, self-harm or eating disorders, they see a full-page panel connecting them to third-party crisis hotlines. We also curate shelves of evidence-based content to ensure that teenagers find reliable information on anxiety, depression and more.
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No personalised ads
YouTube turns off all personalised ads and restricts sensitive ad categories to be shown to all users under 18. And for children under 13 (or the relevant age in your country), YouTube further restricts ads on topics such as media and games not suitable for children, dating, weight loss, politics, religion and more.
FAQs
You can decide which YouTube account is best for your family. Use the questions below to learn the differences between a supervised account on YouTube and the YouTube Kids app.
What is it?
YouTube Kids: A separate app that's a safer and simpler experience for children. Comes with tools for parents and caregivers to guide their viewing journey.
Supervised child account on YouTube: A parent-managed version of regular YouTube with limited features and digital wellbeing protections. Learn more about supervised child accounts on YouTube.
Supervised teen accounts on YouTube: A voluntary supervised experience of regular YouTube that parents or teenagers can set up. Learn more about supervised teen accounts on YouTube.
Who is it for?
YouTube Kids: Kids whose parents want to choose content for them to watch based on 3 age-based content settings: Preschool (ages 4 and under), Younger (ages 5–8), and Older (ages 9–12).
Supervised child account on YouTube: Children under 13 (or the relevant age in their country or region) whose parents decide that they're ready to explore YouTube with parent-selected content settings applied.
Supervised teen accounts on YouTube: Teenagers over 13 (or the relevant age in their country or region) who are using YouTube, with the chosen option to link their account with their parents' account for additional supervision.
How much content is available for my child?
YouTube Kids: Includes a smaller selection of videos than a supervised kid account on YouTube. The amount of available content changes according to the content setting you choose (in order): Preschool (ages 4 and under), Younger (ages 5–8), and Older (ages 9–12).
Supervised kid account on YouTube: Includes more videos and music than our separate YouTube Kids app. The amount of available content changes according to the content setting you choose: Explore, Explore More, or Most of YouTube.
Supervised teen accounts on YouTube: All of YouTube, except age-restricted content. Parents can also get insights into their teenager's channel activity.
Our Community Guidelines set out what's allowed and not allowed on YouTube, and also apply to a supervised experience.
By setting up a supervised account for your child or teenager, and choosing a content setting for them, this will provide additional limits on the content that they can find or get recommended.
We care deeply about our users and work hard to exclude unsuitable videos, but no automated system of filters is perfect. You can change app permissions and content settings for your child at any time. If you find something that you believe violates our Community Guidelines, please report it for review. This makes YouTube better for everyone.
YouTube Kids has a full suite of parental controls in the app so that you can customise your child's experience. You can create individual profiles for each of your children, decide what content to make available for them, set a timer to limit screen time, see recent videos that your children have been watching and so much more. Learn more here.
Supervised child accounts on YouTube: Your child's supervised account on YouTube is linked to your own account, which gives you the ability to adjust their account settings. This includes changing their content setting, pausing or clearing their history, blocking channels, managing screen time through 'Take a Break' and bedtime reminders, setting daily Shorts feed time limits and, if needed, removing their access to YouTube. Learn more here.
Supervised teen accounts on YouTube: Teenagers with their own Google Account can use YouTube independently or link with their parents' account to set up a supervised teen account. With a supervised teen account, you can gain insights into your teenager's YouTube channel activity, as well as set Digital Wellbeing reminders such as Take a Break and bedtime reminders. You can also help your teenager be more intentional about how they watch, with a control to set the amount of time spent scrolling Shorts. Learn more here.
YouTube is part of Google and adheres to Google's privacy policies and principles. We know that it's important for you to understand what personal info we collect in association with your child's Google Account. We also know that you need to know why we collect it and how you can control and delete that info. The Google Privacy Policy and our Privacy Notice for Google Accounts for children under 13 (or the relevant age in their country/region) explains our privacy practices.
Your child can manage and learn more about their YouTube privacy settings and controls under 'Your data in YouTube' in their account. This page includes a summary of their video and activity data and settings to manage this data. The page also details info on how their data is used to improve their YouTube experience, like reminding them what they've watched and giving recommendations.
As the parent manager of your child's Google Account, you can pause or clear their search and watch history from Family Link. You can also clear the history from parent settings in the YouTube Family Centre.
To better protect children and teenagers, ads in certain categories are prohibited, and personalised ads are turned off. Viewers of 'Made for Kids' content may see an ad bumper before and after a video ad is shown. This bumper helps to alert them when an advertisement is starting and ending. If you have a YouTube Premium family plan, your child is eligible for ad-free content and other shared benefits of membership.
Videos where the creator has told us that there's a paid product placement or endorsement in their video will be shown to supervised accounts on YouTube. These videos must also comply with the ad policy on videos that are 'Made for Kids'.