YouTube is a powerful tool used by almost everyone on the internet nowadays. It includes content from music performances, television shows, podcasts, interviews, and other entertaining videos. With so much content on YouTube, is it safe for kids to use?
Know the latest YouTube safety features, and how you can keep your child safe from inappropriate or offensive videos and comments.
4 Ways To Protect Your Kids On YouTube
– Use Your Google Account
Using a Google account, you can enable Restricted Mode on YouTube, which was formerly called safety mode. By enabling this feature, it will help filter out video content that is not for younger kids. It also blocks out comments on these videos. It is often found that comments on YouTube are mean, offensive, and contain derogatory language.
All you need to do to enable Restricted Mode is to click on the user’s profile picture, and scroll to the bottom where it says Restricted Mode. From there, you can click on Restricted Mode to enable this feature. Now it’s enabled and cannot be turned off until you login to the account and disable the feature.
– Set Up A Family Account
By setting up a Gmail account used by all of your family members, you can help monitor and see what your kids are viewing on YouTube. By going to Youtube History on the account, you can see exactly what videos are being watched. If your family is using the same account, you can also check to see what videos your children may be uploading on the site. You want to be aware of what information is out there on the internet to keep you and your family’s personal information protected.
– Third-Party Apps
Parents have also found that phone monitoring apps like Highster Mobile are helpful to see what your kids are doing on YouTube and on their phone in general. Through these apps, you can get information from the device such as how long they spend on each app, what videos they are uploading, and what they are commenting on.
– Create A YouTube Kids Account
The YouTube Kids app creates a video space that’s safe and appropriate for kids. The app has different filters and categories to help children watch videos based on there age or the types of videos they want to explore. Parents can help improve their child’s experience on the app by choosing what they can or cannot watch, limit screen time, and block specific videos.
YouTube Safety Tips To Teach Your Child
– Use The Reporting Tool
Teaching your kids about how to use the safety features within YouTube’s community guidelines will help keep it safer for younger users. Making your children aware of the reporting feature on YouTube will help the platform filter out sexually explicit videos, playlists, and comments. All you need to do to report something on YouTube is click the three dots located on the right of the video or comment.
– Upload Videos Privately
Your kids will want to upload videos to YouTube, and you’re not sure if you should let them. You can now upload videos privately to limit who can see your uploads. When you are uploading the video, select private or unlisted instead of public. The private feature will allow you to choose who can view your video personally. With the unlisted features, your video can only be viewed by people who you send the link of the video directly to.
– Disable Comments
With millions of users on YouTube, there are mean or offensive comments on videos. You can avoid these hurtful comments by simply not allowing anyone to comment on the videos your child uploads. All you need to do is access the advanced settings tab on the upload screen, where you can disable comments entirely or keep them unpublished until you approve them.
– Subscribe To Favorite Channels
Having your kids subscribe to their favorite channels will help keep them on profiles with appropriate content. This is a great way to keep kids off other pages that might have comments or videos that are offensive or inappropriate. Your account will get notified when their favorite profile uploads a new video and will bring them directly to there page.
Related Post: Guide To Social Media Safety For Parents