Tuesday, March 16, 2021

How to make YouTube safer for kids.

A pediatrician moonlighting as a parenting blogger recently published a post about several disturbing videos she found on YouTube kids app. The app is intended to make it safer and simpler for children to browse videos online. Several news outlets quickly picked up on the videos which weren't created for children but managed to slip past content filters.

It wasn't first time parents found alarming videos on the app. Not long after it launched, child consumer advocates reported finding a plethora of disturbing content. This led to a wave of investigations. There was increaced scutiny in particular over the the use of automated systems for moderating videos. Many questioned whether parents could safely rely on such systems.

To address concerns, YouTube kids rolled out a number of safety measures. Nowadays, parents can choose from videos that have been cherry-picked by the app's developers. They can also take a more hands-on approach, preventing kids from watching anything other than the videos parents handpick themselves.

While some concerns over the content remain, there's no denying that YouTube kids is a convenient way to keep children entertained. What's more, it provides nearly endless educational content at no cost to the user. Parents worried about what their kids are watching are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the safety features.