YouTube Kids was built to be a fun, family-friendly place for children and families. The YouTube Kids app has popular children's videos and diverse new content, delivered in a way that's easy to use for children.
Before your child gets started, there are a few details we want to make sure that you understand:
YouTube Kids profiles
YouTube Kids allows signed-in parents to create a separate profile for each child in their household. Each profile has a separate set of viewing preferences and recommendations, allowing multiple children to get the most out of the YouTube Kids app.
Profiles are available on devices where:
- The parent is signed in, and
- The YouTube Kids app is installed.
You can have up to eight profiles. Learn how to create a profile.
Note: You can also use YouTube Kids without signing in at all.
How are videos available in YouTube Kids selected?
One option is to allow your child to explore all videos on YouTube Kids. Parents can choose between three age-based content settings:
- Preschool (Ages 4 and under)
- Younger (Ages 5–8)
- Older (Ages 9–12)
Our automated systems select content from the broader universe of videos on YouTube. We work hard to exclude content that's not suitable for children. But we can't manually review all videos, and no automated system is perfect. If you find something inappropriate, you can block it or report it for fast review.
Another option is to hand-pick the content that your child has access to yourself (Approve Content Yourself). If you choose this option, your child can't search. For more info on how to implement this option, refer to the YouTube Kids guide on parental controls and settings.
Pick the option that you think is best for your child. You can change these settings at any time. We also offer various tools and settings, described below, that you can use to further control your child's experience. Learn more about parental controls and settings.
How does a child discover videos in YouTube Kids?
Videos in YouTube Kids can be discovered in several ways:
Search
When you turn
Search on, you allow your child to find and watch the millions of videos that are available in YouTube Kids. These videos are selected by a special algorithm designed to return relevant and appropriate results.
But videos available through Search are not subject to human review. YouTube handles tremendous breadth, depth and scale of content. So while we work hard to get it right, your child may find content that you don't want them to watch.
If you would like to restrict your child's experience to a more limited set of content, you can
turn off Search using parental settings. By turning Search off, your child will only have access to channels that have been verified by YouTube Kids. Keep in mind that regardless of the status of
Search in your app, there's always a chance that your child will find content you don't want them to watch.
Note: When you turn Search off, your Watch and Search history will be cleared, as well as Recommended and Watch it again videos.
In addition to turning off Search, YouTube Kids offers more parental controls to help you choose the right experience for your child. Learn more about
parental controls and settings.
Videos on the home screen
Videos on the home screen are grouped into
categories, such as 'Shows' and 'Music'. Periodically, YouTube Kids may introduce temporary categories such as 'Reading' to celebrate reading month. These videos are selected by the app using a specially trained algorithm and some human review. The videos may be ranked based on what your child has watched or searched. These videos represent only a subset of the millions of videos that are available in YouTube Kids.
If you chose the 'Approved content only' setting, there will be one category on your child's home screen. This category, called 'Approved for you' will contain the content that you have hand-picked.
Recommended videos
Recommended videos are selected by our algorithm and are not always subject to human review. Recommended videos are shown when Search is on or off, and are presented as an extra category on the home screen after multiple videos have been watched in YouTube Kids. Recommended videos may also appear in the four categories of videos on the home screen and as suggestions for your child to watch, after they've watched videos on the home screen or they've searched for a video. Recommended videos are based on what has been watched or searched for in the app and always draw from the complete set of videos that are available in YouTube Kids.
You can reset
Recommended videos by clearing the app's history in
parental settings. Note that when you turn Search off,
Recommended videos will be cleared as well as your watch and search history.
When Pause history is on, the app will stop using new videos that you watch or terms that you search for to influence your Recommended videos. You can turn Pause history on or off in parental settings.
If your child's profile is set to 'Approved content only', Recommended videos are drawn only from content that you've approved for your child. Learn more about
Recommended videos.
Watch it again
Watch it again allows your child to choose from videos previously watched in the app.
You can reset
Watch it again videos by clearing the app's history in
parental settings. Note that when you turn Search off, your
Watch it again videos will be cleared, in addition to your watch and search history.
When Pause history is on, the app will stop using new videos that you watch or terms that you search for to influence your Watch it again videos. You can turn Pause history on or off in parental settings.
What parental controls are available in YouTube Kids?
We've included features for you to tailor the YouTube Kids experience for your child. For example, you can set a timer to limit how much time a child spends on the app. Other controls include:
Learn more about parental controls and settings.
What kinds of advertising appears in YouTube Kids?
We allow limited paid advertisements ('Paid ads') in the app so that we can offer it free of charge. When your child plays a video in the app, they may see a Paid ad, marked with 'Ad' and preceded by an ad intro. These Paid ads must follow our advertising policies, which, for example, exclude certain categories like food and beverages. Learn more about Ads in YouTube Kids and our advertising policies.
Videos uploaded by users to YouTube are not paid ads, and therefore they are not marked as an ad, nor are they subject to our advertising policies. This may also include content about or from companies that may have also purchased ads in the app. For example, a search for trains could result in train cartoons, songs and videos of real trains uploaded by a user or a toy train company, none of which we consider as paid ads as they are not part of the YouTube Kids advertising programme. Likewise, a search for chocolate can show a user-uploaded video on making chocolate fudge even though we do not allow paid ads for chocolatiers. Learn more about Videos on YouTube Kids.
If you would like to watch videos with your child without Paid ads, try the YouTube Kids app with YouTube Premium. Learn more.
Collection and use of information and personal data on YouTube Kids
For complete info about our data practices, you can view the YouTube Kids Privacy Notice. You can find this notice at
kids.youtube.com/t/privacynotice or in the app's Settings, under the Privacy section.
We take precautions to protect the privacy of the users of our app. It's important that the parent or legal guardian of the child that will be using the app reads this notice before the child gets started. If you are not the parent or legal guardian of the child that will be using YouTube Kids, or if you are but you do not agree with our
privacy practices – do not allow the child to use the app.
This app is operated by Google LLC, with address at 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States.