How to Make YouTube Safe for Kids – Guide
After accusations that YouTube was being exploited by predators to discover videos of underage girls, prominent corporations including AT&T, Nestlé and Epic Games stopped their advertising on the platform this year. With just a few clicks, Google’s recommendation system can lead viewers to videos with inappropriate and perhaps predatory comments. YouTube Kids, the app created by YouTube to ensure family-friendly and child-friendly material, had its own set of problems. A parent just discovered videos on the app that provided instructions on suicide. Given all these concerns, it can be concluded that keeping children entirely away from YouTube is preferable. But it’s not that simple: YouTube has become the destination of many people who want to watch videos. A revolution in the way we consume material is happening around us without many people realizing it, and the numbers are surprising. Each month, more than 1.9 billion connected users use YouTube, and each day, more than a billion hours of video are watched, resulting in billions of views. YouTube is actually more watched by 18-34 year olds than any other television network – and that’s just considering mobile Views! So now that YouTube is a part of our lives, what can we do as parents or educators to ensure our children have a safe experience? The answer is not as simple as it seems. While there are solutions available to help establish a more secure environment, there is no one-size-fits-all solution as new problems emerge almost as quickly as new solutions.
Ways to make YouTube safer for kids
By far the most powerful way to make YouTube safer is to closely supervise children as they ‘use’ it. While television has its own challenges, FCC laws and other societal standards and norms at least provide some measure of ‘safety’. Of course, this isn’t always feasible, but if it is, few things other than deleting the app and banning its access are better for keeping kids safe online — on YouTube or elsewhere. And connected to supervision is helping even young children to understand a basic sense of media consumption, habits, goals, causes and effects and other ideas to help them self-monitor. In addition to these macro concepts, there are ten other ways to create a safer YouTube for all kids. As mentioned above, the YouTube Kids app (which debuted in 2015) has experienced its share of growing pains. Parents have repeatedly identified inappropriate content on the app, which remains a problem. Given that an algorithm is determining appropriate content, it seems difficult to imagine a scenario where YouTube can guarantee that all content visible in the app is considered perfectly appropriate. And because YouTube itself is designed for users aged 13 and over, YouTube Kids is the only way for kids to access content on the site. There are ways to configure YouTube Kids so that it provides an even safer experience and greatly reduces the chance of your child encountering inappropriate videos. By disabling search, you ensure that children cannot browse YouTube Kids content on their own. You can disable search on YouTube Kids by following these steps: Click on the padlock in the lower right corner of the screen Enter your password or answer the math question if a password has not been set. Click on the Settings gear. Select your child (Note: this process must be done for each child you want to set this for in your account) and enter your Google password when prompted. Uncheck “Allow Search” There are several settings for the type of content that can be shown to each child in the YouTube Kids app, from videos for younger students to those ready for a less restrictive experience. To provide the safest experience possible, you can select “Approved content only”. This will ensure that the only videos your child can watch are the ones you’ve approved. You can also choose from collections available in the app that were created by the YouTube Kids team and their partners. These collections contain videos that have been evaluated for appropriate content. To change the content available to your child: Click on the padlock in the lower right corner of the screen Enter your password or answer the math question if a password has not been set. Click on the Settings gear. Select your child (Note: this process must be done for each child you want to set this for in your account) and enter your Google password when prompted. Under “Content Level”, select only “Approved Content”. One more setting in YouTube Kids that you can tweak is the ability to let the app recommend videos to your child based on the ones they’ve already watched. Pausing this will prevent the app from using new video views or search terms (if you still have it enabled) to recommend videos. To pause watch history: Click on the padlock in the lower right corner of the screen Enter your password or answer the math question if a password has not been set. Click on the Settings gear. Select your child (Note: this process must be done for each child you want to set this for in your account) and enter your Google password when prompted. Select “Pause Watch History” Even after enabling some changes in YouTube Kids settings, you must ensure that they cannot be changed back by a child looking for more freedom. When clicking on the padlock to access the settings screen, it says “Parents only”, the default option will only require the child to answer a simple math question to access the settings screen. You must do this before giving your child access so they don’t set their own password and block you from Settings. To enable a four-digit password: Click on the padlock in the lower right corner of the screen Enter your password or answer the math question if a password has not been set. Click on the Settings gear. Select your child (Note: this process must be done for each child you want to set this for in your account) and enter your Google password when prompted. Select “Set custom password” Enter a 4-digit number of your choice. This will be the new code needed to access the Settings menu. Even with some additional safety measures in place to create a safer viewing experience for your child, it is always possible that you will encounter a problematic video. If you find a video that you think is inappropriate for your child, you have options in the app to report and block it. While on the questionable video, you can click on the three dots in the top right corner. If you choose to report it, you can select reasons including inappropriate audio, inappropriate visuals or other reasons. You can also choose to block the video so that it is no longer displayed in the app to your child. While YouTube Kids is a great choice for younger kids, some of your older kids might be looking for content that just can’t be found on YouTube Kids. And while navigating the waters of YouTube can be a little trickier, there are definitely ways to create a safer experience for your kids who use it. One setting available on YouTube that can help create a safer experience for kids is Restricted Mode. This is an additional setting that can be enabled on the YouTube website and app. If enabled, may restrict the availability of potentially adult or objectionable content. Again, there is no perfect solution, but this will capture a fair amount of inappropriate and flagged content. To enable Restricted Mode (which is disabled by default): In the YouTube app, click your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen. Click on the Settings gear. Activate “Restricted Mode” You can also enable Restricted Mode on the YouTube website: Along the left side at the bottom of the YouTube homepage, click the Settings gear. At the bottom of the Settings page, click on “Restricted Mode” button. Enable “Restricted Mode” and click Save. Another way to create a safer YouTube experience for kids is to take advantage of free Chrome extensions that let you modify the web-based version of YouTube to remove things like recommended videos and autoplay. DF Tube is an extension that, once installed, will allow you to click on a video and just watch that video without all the clutter and excess content that YouTube puts on your screen. The options menu also includes the ability to customize your experience by hiding the various sidebars and comments based on your preferences. The only consideration to note is that as it is a Chrome extension, it will only work with the Chrome browser. While this requires you to select content in advance, you can create playlists for your child that contain videos that you approve of them watching. Adding and managing playlists is also a relatively simple process and can be done simply by searching YouTube for the videos you want and using the “Save” button. button to add them to the desired playlist. One step some parents have taken to monitor device usage in their home is to install a home content filter similar to those used by school districts. Content filters not only allow you to block content you don’t want, but also allow you to see what has been accessed. OpenDNS, SafeDNS and NetNanny are just a few of the options available to parents. Depending on how much you’re willing to spend, you can get one with more advanced and customizable features. features that allow you to create an even safer online environment for your children. Have students keep a quick Google Doc or paper journal where they document what they watch, when, and for how long. This might seem ‘silly’ to them and something you don’t ‘check’ often as a teacher or parent, but it can also be eye-opening – and (aside from viewing history) is hard data about what kids are watching, when and for how long.
Final note
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