Is YouTube Safe for Kids?

YouTube has introduced me to new music, taught me how to patch a bike tire, and lifted my kids’ spirits when they are home sick… again. 

Youtube popularized user-created content when it opened its video platform in 2005. Today, YouTube has 2.5 billion monthly active users, beating out Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and X (Twitter). 

YouTube has a wide audience with content for almost every age group or interest. While there are large amounts of family-friendly and educational material, there are also videos with violence, suicidal ideation, explicit language, and drug use. 

Parents can use parental controls on YouTube to create a more supervised experience.

YouTube’s Parental Controls

YouTube offers three tiers of parental controls for parents to choose from. No parental control is foolproof, and sometimes kids get around them, so please be aware there are still possible risks.

Parents can use parental controls as training wheels as their child learn and grow in their digital citizenship skills.

1. YouTube Kids 

YouTube Kids offers the most protection with filtered content across three age groups between 4-13. Parents cannot choose what specific content shows up on their child’s profile, but they can set timers, block content and turn off the search feature. Comments are disabled on Youtube kids to prevent predatory comments.

As of July 2024, YouTube Kids was disabled as a standalone app on smart TVs. Child’s profiles can still be found through the original YouTube app. 

2. YouTube Supervised Experience

With YouTube’s supervised experience, parents can supervise their child’s account, review the child’s watch history, and set the child’s content settings. Parents have three content options – “Most of YouTube” (least protection), “Explore More” and “Explore” (most protection). Each tier offers different levels of guardrails, such as disabling live chat or making video comments read-only to help prevent kids talking to predators.

Parents cannot set time limits, and a child can get to YouTube without any parental controls by signing out of their account or watching on an incognito browser. 

3. YouTube Restricted Mode 

Restricted Mode filters out search results with mature content, such as content labeled “mature audiences only” or videos that are flagged as inappropriate. Comments cannot be viewed when in restricted mode.

Restricted mode is browser specific, so kids can easily circumvent its filters by simply switching to a different browser. There are no time limits available in restricted mode.

How to Turn on Restricted Mode

As an opt-in feature, YouTube Restricted Mode has to be turned on to work. It is not customizable—parents cannot choose which content to restrict or allow.

1. Go to YouTube.com
2. Tap your profile photo on the top-right corner.
3. Tap “Restricted Mode: Off” to open a new window
4. Turn on Restricted Mode by tapping the slider with the black circle.
   
   Note: Restricted Mode must be enabled on every browser and every device separately.

How Effective is Restricted Mode?

Since children can easily circumvent Restricted Mode, it’s not very effective. 

Restricted Mode is not an account feature; it only works within a specific browser. Restricted Mode must be enabled on every browser and device separately.

Even with Restricted Mode activated, YouTube features tutorial videos on how to turn off the safety feature. 

If a child is inclined, there are numerous ways to get around Restricted Mode, making it ineffective.

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How Kids Get Around YouTube’s Restricted Mode

1. Open A New Browser: Using a new browser without Restricted Mode allows unfiltered access to YouTube.
2. Use a Different Device: Kids can switch to a device without Restricted mode to view all of YouTube.
3. Use a Proxy Browser or App: Youth can use gateway browsers or apps that provide untracked access to unfiltered content online.

What are YouTube’s Dangers?

Users create all content on YouTube. And they create a lot of it. Every minute of the day, 500 video hours of user-generated is uploaded to YouTube. [That is nearly a million (720,000) hours of content daily.

While YouTube uses artificial intelligence (AI) called Video Classifiers to filter videos, they rely heavily on users to “flag” or report content violating those standards.

Then users flag videos, the process of taking videos down can be slow.

YouTube Now Has Games

Youtube has begun adding games in a new section called Playables. This new content is available to select YouTube app users, and will be rolled out to everyone soon.

Information is sparse on this new feature, and there is no information yet on how appropriate the games are for kids, or if YouTube’s parental controls apply to Playables.

YouTube’s AI filter

While AI and humans oversee Video Classifiers, it is impossible to catch everything. 

YouTube videos are vetted using AI video classifiers. Anything that slips through can be flagged by users for review, but the video remains online until YouTube takes action.

In 2023, child safety was cited as the reason for 59.4% of YouTube videos removed.

—YouTube Transparency Report

After kids have been exposed to inappropriate content, parents are left to deal with the resulting impact on their mental and emotional health.

The Damaging Effects of Exposure

YouTube vlogger Logan Paul, whose video featured the body of someone who died by suicide, was tragically never flagged by AI. It went viral online before YouTube reacted.

Although viewers repeatedly flagged it for inappropriate content, YouTube was too slow to act, and 6 million people viewed it before it was taken down.

As a result of community criticism, the vlogger himself removed the video the day after it was posted on YouTube. 

How Predators Get Around Filters

Predators use simple tricks to get their videos past AI, hiding inappropriate content in the middle of videos that appears innocent.

Predators use child-friendly titles and hashtags to get past filters and to trick the algorithms that recommend videos to children.

In interviews conducted by Gabb, one parent shared that, while using YouTube restricted mode, her 5-year-old daughter watched a popular cartoon featuring puppies. Nearby, the parent happened to hear intense profanity. When she investigated, she found these expletives had been dubbed over the actual script.

Digital Privacy

While viewing any media, look at the auto-populated content below the video. It will give you insight into the data the AI is collecting on your child.

YouTube autoplays videos (on by default) by deducing the age of the viewer, tracking their search history, and collecting the viewing preferences of your child to offer continuous content suggestions.

This allows YouTube to advertise directly to kids. Children are the product that YouTube sells to advertisers.

YouTube Auto-populates Videos

While viewing any media, look at the auto-populated content below the video. It will give you insight into the data the AI is collecting on your child.

YouTube autoplays videos (on by default unless turned off with parental controls) by deducing the age of the viewer, tracking their search history, and collecting the viewing preferences of your child to offer continuous content suggestions.This allows YouTube to advertise directly to kids. Children are the product that YouTube sells to advertisers.

What Parents Can Do

Use the parental controls, but don’t rely on them to solve everything.

Many parents have found success keeping electronic devices in public areas at home with the sound on (no headphones) where they can quickly intervene if inappropriate content appears.

Aside from monitoring screen time, regularly talking to your child about the benefits and dangers of YouTube and monitoring your child’s internet history can provide great opportunities for conversations.

Create a simple strategy for kids when something inappropriate comes on, such as Stop, Run and Tell. Explain they will not be in trouble for telling you.

Do you watch YouTube in your home? What would you like to learn more about in this article? Let us know in the comments!