YouTube Launches New Parental Controls On Platform

YouTube is expanding its set of parental controls with a new feature. The new supervised experience on the platform will give parents and teens the option to link their accounts and get shared insights and notifications. The feature, part of YouTube’s new Family Centre hub, will roll out globally this week.

In a blog post on Wednesday, the Google-owned platform said that the latest feature is designed to keep parents informed about their teens' channel activity on YouTube and help them provide encouragement and advice on responsible content creation. According to YouTube, parents and teens will be able to link their accounts in Family Center hub. In Family Center, parents will be able to see shared insights into their teens’ channel activity on YouTube, including the number of uploads, subscriptions, and comments.

At the same time, the company told TechCrunch that the act of linking the account will not influence the YouTube algorithm in terms of what’s shown to the teen. However, parents will be able to be alerted to new uploads across YouTube and YouTube Shorts, even if they are private or unlisted videos. The TechCrunch report mentioned that parents will be able to see when video privacy settings are changed. Major social apps, including Instagram and Facebook, have also previously launched similar controls that involve supervised accounts linked to parents.