YouTube has launched supervised kid accounts across the Middle East and North Africa, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

The accounts represent the online video-sharing platform’s next step in age appropriate experiences: allowing young people to navigate their imagination and curiosity on YouTube with enhanced safety, privacy and wellbeing.

In recognition that each family, and each child, is different, supervised kid accounts put parents in the driver’s seat: offering robust parental controls and a specialised, age-appropriate environment built directly into the main YouTube app. 

The accounts are optional and can be terminated by parents at any time, if they’d prefer their child to have full access to all of YouTube, said the Google entity in a statement.

Supervised kid accounts come with three content settings for parents to choose from - each broadly aligning with international content ratings. 

Content settings include Explore, which includes educational content, tutorials, arts and crafts and dance; Explore more, which also includes gaming and live streams, and Most of YouTube, which contains almost all videos on YouTube except for those rated 18+ or deemed inappropriate for supervised accounts.

As well as content settings, supervised kid accounts come with easy-to-use tools that let parents make the best choices for their families. 

They include the industry-first Shorts feed timer, which allows parents to set daily time limits for scrolling the Shorts feed. By setting the Shorts timer to zero, parents can turn off short-form scrolling completely: for example, ahead of exam season.

Announcing the new accounts, Javid Aslanov, the Middle East & North Africa Head, said: “YouTube has been a huge part of families’ lives across this region for over 20 years – whether to help with homework or as a shared viewing experience on the family TV – which is why we’re continuously investing in tools that serve families and put their wellness first.”

“Research by Kantar shows that 95% of viewers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE agree that YouTube has top content in education and learning, while 92% of Gen Z viewers say it has helped them learn new skills,” he stated.

Supervised kid accounts also come with built-in controls that are set by default for all users under 18. These include “Take a Break” and “Bedtime” reminders, to encourage mindful viewing. 

“For these accounts, we also disable a number of standard features normally available in YouTube, such as the ability to create content or write comments. Personalised ad targeting is also not allowed, and autoplay is not on by default,” he explained.

The kid accounts announced today join supervised teen accounts, already available across the region. Teen accounts are a voluntary experience that allow young people to explore most of YouTube, while facilitating open conversations with parents. 

Teen accounts include easy account linking for parents and teens; timely email notifications that inform parents if their teenager uploads a video or starts a live stream; and shared insights into their teenagers channel activity, he added.

Garth Graham, Head of Health at YouTube, said: “It’s essential that we protect young people in - not from - the digital world. Thoughtful safeguards like kid and teen accounts help us continue to give young people a place to learn and explore, while ensuring the right tools and boundaries are in place to keep them safe and give families a choice.”

Supervised kid & teen accounts are the latest in YouTube’s long-standing commitment to family safety, which spans over a decade and follows guidance from a team of independent child development specialists. 

YouTube’s offering for younger children, YouTube Kids, is a standalone app featuring a curated library of age-appropriate videos, said the statement. 

Google Family Link offers parental controls that allow parents to set digital ground rules, manage app usage, filter content and track the location of a child’s Android phone. YouTube will continue to invest to put the safety, privacy and wellbeing of young people at the forefront of their streaming platform, it added.-TradeArabia News Service