YouTube announced the expansion of parental controls, adding the ability to connect a parent’s account to a teenager’s account. This will allow you to get an idea of children’s activity on the platform without viewing the content itself.
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«Linking accounts will allow parents to receive notifications about the number of downloads, subscriptions and comments left by a teenager,” the company says in its blog. Parents will also receive email alerts when important events occur, such as a new video being uploaded to both YouTube and YouTube Shorts, or a live broadcast going live. They will also be able to see any changes to the video’s privacy settings.
It is noted that the new feature will not affect the YouTube algorithm, which is already personalized for each user. “The very fact of linking accounts will not affect the recommendations that a teenager sees,” YouTube representatives clarified in a conversation with TechCrunch. It is important that when linking accounts, parents will not be able to change the teenager’s age specified during registration. YouTube will rely on the information the teenager entered when creating their profile.
This feature is a development of the parental controls that YouTube introduced in 2021. Then the company launched test “controlled” accounts for children “under the age of consent” to use online services (in the USA this age is 13 years old, in other countries the age may be different) and promised to expand this function for older age groups, which is what is happening Now.
The development of parental control tools is associated with growing attention to the safety of children on the Internet and tightening legislation in this area. Some US states, such as Utah and Arkansas, have already passed laws restricting children under 18 years of age from accessing social media without parental consent. Other social platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram✴ and Facebook✴ have also introduced similar parental control features. While YouTube isn’t always thought of as a social network, it offers similar features, such as user profiles, the ability to follow creators, comment on videos, and access algorithmically curated entertainment content.