Kid-Friendly YouTube App Coming February 23

It seems that Google is making good on its promise to have child-safe products this year, starting with probably the most engaging one of all: YouTube. USA Today reports that a colorful and limited new YouTube app will be debuting 23rd February to help give parents a bit of peace of mind, not to mention more control, over their kids' online viewing activities. And, of course, the app will be filled to the brim with contents that kids will love, or supposedly love, while keeping more mature videos out of the way.

Google made the promise of more kid-friendly products last year after noticing a growing trend: the hipsters and engineers of years past are becoming parents. Naturally, having seen what the Internet is capable of, both the good and the bad, they'd want to keep their own offspring safe. Luckily for those in Google who have become parents, they are in the position to make that happen.

Starting off with YouTube is almost a no brainer. Although search is Google's core product, kids are more drawn into the world of moving pictures than scrolling text. As such, they offer the biggest danger, as well as the biggest opportunity for growth. Shimrit Ben-Yair, project manager for this particular YouTube group, says that while YouTube experience consistent 50 percent growth in viewing time year after year, the numbers for family entertainment are a more staggering 200 percent.

So what will the new YouTube app offer? Naturally, it will have a revamped interface that puts kids' content front and center. Large tiles, which can easily be tapped by less precise fingers, show popular children's channels. At the top are icons that categorize content into TV programs, music videos of kids' songs, educational content, and, of course, search. The latter will utilize voice search since the target audience will unlikely be able to type well. It will also probably really test Google's voice recognition abilities.

As for safety controls, parents can control the maximum viewing time a child can have and block the app with a password when the limit is reached. The YouTube app also does away with unnecessary and potentially dangerous cruft, like YouTube comments. And for search, if kids search for inappropriate words, accidentally or otherwise, they will told to "try again".

It will be interesting to see how Google will incorporate its usual user activity tracking algorithms in this kids' version of the app. Under FCC rules, those under 13 years of age should be excluded from such tracking activities. Of course, the loophole is that parents can give that consent, which may be a small fine print in the upcoming YouTube app.