YouTube now has a way for parents to prevent children from watching short videos

YouTube and other social media platforms are ramping up their parental controls Safety of minors on the Internet It remains a hot topic internationally.

The platform is owned by Google Announce On Wednesday they implemented additional parental controls, particularly regarding the amount of time their children and teens spend watching YouTube Shorts.

Parents will now be able to set a timer for the amount of time their connected children’s accounts can spend watching short videos — the equivalent of YouTube’s TikToks or Instagram Reels — helping to reduce the potential for wasting time mindlessly scrolling.

Parents can also block accounts from watching short videos entirely, either permanently or temporarily, much like if a child were supposed to use YouTube to study for a test by watching educational content.

YouTube will also allow parents to set personalized bedtime and take a break reminders, which encourage users to stop watching videos. These features are also available to adults, who can choose to set their own boundaries and reminders.

For parents who also use YouTube, it can be difficult to navigate back and forth between an adult’s account and a child’s account — unless you want Bluey to usurp your algorithm forever. In the coming weeks, YouTube says it will update the in-app sign-up experience to make it easier for parents and kids to switch between their accounts with just a few taps… of course, that requires the parent or child to actually remember to make the switch.

These features build on YouTube’s existing parental controls for teens, which includes the ability to supervise teens’ channel activity if they’re creating content. This has become an industry standard, as well Tik Tok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook It has similar controls.

Last year, YouTube also revealed Age estimation technology To predict whether an account belongs to a teen so they can provide a more age-appropriate experience.