YouTube launching new viewing tools for parents, children

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January 17, 2026 | 12:13pm

MANILA, Philippines — YouTube is launching a number of updates to assist parents in guiding their children's viewing habits on the video sharing platform.

The updates are meant to help families manage screen time for younger viewers, as well as to help teens be more intentional with their time online.

The platform's Product Management vice president Jennifer Flannery O'Connor reiterated in a statement YouTube's belief in protecting children within the digital world, not from it.

"We've spent over a decade building tailored protections for our youngest viewers based on what parents and experts tell us they need: better controls, age-appropriate content and simple account management," O'Connor added.

First among these updates is the Shorts Timer tool which allows parents to control how much time their children can spend viewing short-form content.

Parents can adjust a timer up to an hour on a given day. Going forward the tool may have a feature allowing for zero time allotment permanently.

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Those using supervised accounts can now also customize "Bedtime" and "Break" reminders to leave kids notifications to rest their eyes.

Acknowleding that many users share mobile devices, YouTube will debut a new sign-up experience where parents can create accounts for their children and seamless account switching can be done seamlessly on mobile.

Multiple accounts allow for personalized vieweing experiences, each with content settings and recommendations suited to users' ages.

The platform will also launch new principles and a guide for creators to assist in directing younger viewers to content that is fun, age-appropriate and of high quality.

The guidelines were done in collaboration with several experts including the American Psychological Association and the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital to help the platform's systems prioritize videos considered educational and inspiring.

That will mean more visibility from channels such as Khan Academy, CrashCourse and TED-Ed, where young viewers will have faster access to entertaining and educational content.

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