YouTube Kids is the kid-friendly version of YouTube which avails youngsters a safer way to browse YouTube instead of giving them full access to the main app. While that more filtered version of YouTube was first introduced in 2015, it was criticized in the past for not fully locking down the YouTube experience.
Now, the updated app has added several new features designed to reflect the app’s aging user base, with customizable profiles based on the kid’s date of birth, as well as more controls for parents and kids as regards privacy and security.
It spots a new streamlined design, and curated selections of kid-appropriate content from publishers like DreamWorks TV, National Geographic Kids, Reading Rainbow and Thomas the Tank Engine, among others.
The new parental control feature eases access for parents, instead of the toggle off the app’s search to set private passcode or using the default setting, which spells out numbers as words for parents to enter; they can now sign in with their Google account in order to create customizable profiles for their kids.
YouTube Kids app changing of its looks based on the kid’s age, is especially useful for parents with multiple kids.
And because YouTube Kids itself, by default, looked like an app that was designed more or less for preschoolers than the school-age crowd. Overall, it’s safer for kids to browse YouTube Kids compared with giving them access to the main app.
