Parental controls for YouTube Kids profiles

YouTube Kids offers a safer and simpler experience for children. There are various controls and settings for you to guide their viewing journey. 

Note: If you want to learn more about parental controls and settings for pre-teen supervised experiences, get more info in our Help Centre.

Manage parental controls and settings

There are several ways that you can manage these controls. When you set up a Google Account for your child, you can set up parental controls for the YouTube Kids experience through Family Link. When you set up a YouTube Kids profile for your child, you can set up parental controls through YouTube and YouTube Kids.

Use parental controls and settings on YouTube Kids

You can view parental controls and settings for YouTube Kids profiles from YouTube Kids:

  1. Select the lock  in the corner of your screen.
  2. Complete the multiplication problem or enter your custom passcode.
  3. Select Settings .
Note: There are some device settings, such as cast and custom passcode, that you can change without selecting your child's profile.

Use YouTube's Family Centre

To view parental controls and settings for YouTube Kids profiles from YouTube:

  1. Sign in to the YouTube app with your linked parent account.
  2. Tap You in the bottom right-hand corner.
  3. Tap Settings .
  4. Tap Family Centre.

Use the Family Link app

To view parental controls and settings for YouTube Kids profiles from Family Link:

  1. On your device, open the Family Link app Family Link.
  2. Select your child.
  3. Tap Controls and then Content restrictions and then YouTube.
  4. Change your YouTube Kids settings under 'YouTube Kids settings'.

 Change specific parental controls and settings

 You can tailor the YouTube Kids experience for your child by adjusting specific parental controls and settings. These controls and settings let you:

Change your child's content-level settings

Parents can choose how content will be selected in YouTube Kids.

Change the content-level setting for your child's YouTube Kids profile from YouTube Kids:

YouTube Kids: How to select content levels based on your child's age

Note: In addition to the content setting that you choose for your child, any content that you share with them from YouTube will also be available in YouTube Kids.
  1. Select the lock in the corner of your screen.
  2. Complete the multiplication problem or enter your custom passcode.
  3. Select Settings .
  4. Select your child's profile and enter your parent account password.
  5. Select Preschool, Younger, Older or Approve content yourself.

Change your child's content-level setting from YouTube:

  1. Sign in to the YouTube app with your linked parent account.
  2. Tap You in the bottom right-hand corner.
  3. Tap Settings .
  4. Tap Family Centre.
  5. Select your child's profile or account.
  6. Under 'YouTube Kids settings', select EDIT next to 'Content settings'.
  • Note: If you want to change their content setting to Approve content yourself, you have to use the YouTube Kids app to make this change.

If you manage your child's Google Account with Family Link, you can also change their content-level setting from the Family Link app:

  1. On your device, open the Family Link app Family Link.
  2. Select your child.
  3. Tap Controls and then Content restrictions and then YouTube.
  4. Change your child's content-level setting for YouTube Kids under 'YouTube Kids settings'.
Note: You'll get a preview of content that is available in each content setting when you click or tap the content setting's name. You can change these settings at any time.
Approved content only

 In this setting, your child can only watch videos, channels and collections that you've hand-picked. Collections are videos and channels grouped by topics, such as science and music, picked by the YouTube Kids teams or by our partners.

In this setting, your child can't search for any videos in YouTube Kids.

 YouTube Kids: How to approve what your children can watch

To change your child's content setting to approve content yourself:

  1. Open the YouTube Kids app on your child's device.
  2. Tap the Lock icon in the bottom corner of any page in the app.
  3. Complete the multiplication problem or enter your custom passcode.
  4. Select Settings .
  5. Select your child's profile and enter your parent account password.
  6. Select EDIT SETTINGS.
  7. Select Approve content yourself to turn on.
  8. Review the info in the 'Getting started' pop-up.
  9. Tap Select.
  10. Tap on any collection, channel or video to approve content that you'd like to make available to your child.
  11. Select DONE in the red box at the bottom of the screen to exit.
Note: You can edit the list of collections, channels and videos that you've approved at any time by tapping Manage under the 'Approved content only' setting. While you're approving content, you can preview what your child's experience will be like by tapping PREVIEW. You can also turn off 'Approved content only' at any time by returning to Settings.
Turn off search

You can restrict your child to a more limited set of videos in YouTube Kids by turning off the search feature.

With the search feature turned off, your child can't search for videos. Your child will also be limited to videos and channels verified by YouTube Kids. Learn more about search in YouTube Kids.

To turn off the search feature, switch Search to off in Settings .

If you turn off Search, the watch and search history for your child's YouTube Kids profile will be cleared. Recommended videos and Watch it again will also be reset.

Review your child's watch history

You can review your child's watch history for YouTube Kids in Watch it again.

On your child's mobile device or tablet:

  • Tap Watch it again  at the top of the home screen.

On your child's computer:

  • In the top corner of the screen, select your child's profile picture to view the Watch it again videos.

Note: Only videos viewed in YouTube Kids on that device will show up in Watch it again.

Clear history
You can clear the watch and search history for your child's account across all of their linked devices from YouTube:
  1. Sign in to the YouTube app with your linked parent account.
  2. Tap You in the bottom right-hand corner.
  3. Tap Settings .
  4. Tap Family Centre.
  5. Select your child's profile or account.
  6. Select Clear history.
  7. To save your changes, select CLEAR.

You can also clear your child's history and reset videos on Recommended and Watch it again from YouTube Kids:

  1. Select the lock in the corner of your screen.
  2. Complete the multiplication problem or enter your custom passcode.
  3. Select Settings .
  4. Select your child's profile and enter your parent account password.
  5. Select Clear history.
  6. To save your changes, select OK.
Turn off auto-play
You can turn off auto-play for your child by selecting Disable auto-play. Your child can't turn on auto-play when this setting is on.
To disable auto-play for your child from YouTube:
  1. Sign in to the YouTube app with your linked parent account.
  2. Tap You in the bottom right-hand corner.
  3. Tap Settings .
  4. Tap Family Centre.
  5. Select your child's profile or account.
  6. Switch Disable auto-play to on.
Pause watch history
You can stop new video views from being used as signals to recommend other videos. Pausing watch history will also stop new video views from being used as signals for recommended videos and Watch it again.

To pause your child's watch history from YouTube Kids:

  1. Select the lock in the corner of your screen.
  2. Complete the multiplication problem or enter your custom passcode.
  3. Select Settings .
  4. Select your child's profile and enter your parent account password.
  5. Switch Pause watch history to on.
  6. To save your changes, select OK.

To pause your child's watch history from YouTube:

  1. Sign in to the YouTube app with your linked parent account.
  2. Tap You in the bottom right-hand corner.
  3. Tap Settings .
  4. Tap Family Centre.
  5. Select your child's profile or account.
  6. Switch Pause watch history to on.
Pause search history

Pausing search history will also stop new search terms from being used as signals for recommended videos.

To Pause your child's search history from YouTube Kids:

  1. Select the lock in the corner of your screen.
  2. Complete the multiplication problem or enter your custom passcode.
  3. Select Settings .
  4. Select your child's profile and enter your parent account password.
  5. Switch Pause search history to on.
  6. To save your changes, select OK.

To pause your child's search history from YouTube:

  1. Sign in to the YouTube app with your linked parent account.
  2. Tap You in the bottom right-hand corner.
  3. Tap Settings .
  4. Tap Family Centre.
  5. Select your child's profile or account.
  6. Switch Pause search history to on.

​​​​YouTube Premium

There are several benefits to using your YouTube Premium membership with YouTube Kids. For example, you and your child can watch videos on YouTube Kids without any paid ads.

You'll also get access to downloads and Background play. Learn more about these settings.

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