Atti Abderrahim
Table of Contents
YouTube has expanded its current suite of parental control tools by introducing a new feature that allows parents to link their accounts with their teenage children’s accounts. This new feature, announced by “TechCrunch,” aims to provide parents with a comprehensive overview of their teens’ activities on the video-sharing platform.
Once the accounts are linked, parents will receive alerts about their teen’s channel activity, such as uploads, subscriptions, and comments—but not the actual content. Additionally, they will receive email notifications about key events, like the posting of a new video or the start of a live stream.
How the Account Linking Works
The linking process does not influence YouTube’s recommendation algorithm regarding what is shown to the teenager, as that is determined by the user’s own activity. Also, parents cannot report the child’s actual age to YouTube through the account linking process; YouTube adheres to the age the teenager entered when registering on the platform.
However, parents will be able to receive alerts about new uploads, including YouTube videos or Shorts, even if the videos are private or unlisted. They will also have visibility into when the privacy settings of a video are changed.
Building on Existing Parental Controls
This new experience builds on the parental control tools YouTube introduced in 2021. At that time, YouTube allowed parents to create supervised accounts for their children who were not yet of “digital age of consent,” which is 13 in the United States but varies in other countries. The company had indicated it would expand the service to include older age groups in the future.
The introduction of supervised experiences on social media platforms comes as technology giants strive to stay ahead of, or comply with, regulations concerning the use of their services by minors.
Global Rollout and Future Plans
YouTube has announced that the new experience for monitoring teenage activity will be rolled out to parents this week. This will enable them to link their accounts with their teens’ through a new “Family Center” within the app. Additionally, Google’s “Family Link” service will provide parents with access to this new monitoring feature via its app. The global rollout of this experience is expected to reach all YouTube users in the coming weeks.
Collaboration with Experts for Improved Controls
YouTube also stated that it collaborated with a Youth and Family Advisory Board to develop these new control elements. Currently, YouTube’s products for children, including the YouTube Kids app and supervised experiences for pre-teens, serve over 100 million active monthly users, both registered and unregistered viewers.
By introducing these new features, YouTube aims to provide parents with greater oversight of their teens’ activities on the platform, thereby enhancing the safety and security of younger users in compliance with evolving digital regulations.
