YouTube Finally has Parental Controls

This has nothing to do with any of my normal content but I think this is a super important (weekend) topic for my (mostly) local parent audience

Tom HaydenMarch 25, 20231 min read

This is a completely off-topic post but I think it is important to spread the word to other parents of elementary school children about this new feature in YouTube that will change your life.

If you are a parent of an elementary school child (as I believe most of my readers are) you probably live in a world with the following problem:

  • My child wants to watch YouTube

  • YouTube Kids sucks and my kid won’t watch it

  • I’m OK with my child watching some YouTube (such as Mark Rober or Physics Girl) but it is impossible to control the garbage recommendations

For an eternity, YouTube had absolutely no form of parental controls. I discovered the other day that they finally do but it’s pretty hidden. It will allow you to whitelist specific channels and turn off the recommendation algorithm!

Here’s how to do it:

  • Make sure you setup a Google Account for your kid, separately from your account and have linked them to you in Google Families

  • Remove YouTube.

  • Add the YouTube Kids App.

  • When you’re setting it up, you should be able to link it to your account.

  • Pick the setting for their age group, this will make sure they have access to the boring videos they don’t want to watch.

Here’s a video on how to do that part:

The Most Important Part

From your phone, inside the YouTube App you can “Share” an entire channel with them. There is a whole flow that will allow you to pick which child. See below is how it works from my phone.

You click:

  • Share Video

  • Then click “With Kids”

  • Then click your Child’s account

Note: this will ONLY work on the YouTube Mobile app

Then this entire channel will show up in the YouTube Kids app your child uses. They will be able to watch just videos on this channel and other ones you approve. There is no recommendations sidebar anymore and they will no longer be able to surf the YouTube wasteland.