YouTube Supervised Accounts Limit Access To Content For Teens

This week the folks at YouTube revealed a new way to work with videos for kids and young adults. YouTube's latest feature was made as "a new choice for parents who have decided their tweens and teens are ready to explore YouTube with a supervised account." This feature will be launched first with a BETA mode, with a larger launch later this year.

This new system is different from YouTube Kids. Where YouTube Kids was designed and aimed at users below the age of 13, the rest of YouTube "always recommended that parents co-watch with their kids if they choose to watch YouTube."

With the newest version of YouTube, parents will have three modes to choose from for their child. Explore, Explore more, and Most of YouTube will be available as "content settings" in YouTube.

Explore is aimed at children that've been using YouTube Kids but want to move beyond the basics. This setting restricts YouTube to "a broad range of videos generally suitable for viewers ages 9+."

In the content setting "Explore More", you'll find content "generally suitable for viewers ages 13+." This includes an "even larger set of videos" and "also live streams in the same categories as 'Explore.'"

The "Most of YouTube" mode includes "almost all" of the video content on YouTube, except the age-restricted content. This also includes "sensitive topics that may only be appropriate for older teens."

On the YouTube Blog right now, YouTube's James Beser, Director of Product Management, Kids and Family, went into detail on the ways and reasons why this new system of control was created. As of yet, there is no release date for this new feature. Beser suggested that they are currently "building this new supervised experience" and still recommend parents use YouTube Kids for younger kids.