DURBAN - Google has announced that they will expand the parental controls for their YouTube Kids application.
The new features allow parents to keep the YouTube application on lock-down so it only shows channels that have been reviewed by people rather than algorithms.
This includes content that is displayed in the YouTube app itself as well as the recommended videos. A later update will allow parents to set up what videos and channels their kids can view.
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The parental controls are opt-in, which means that they will actually have to turn on the different settings within their child's profile in the YouTube Kids' settings.
Parents will be able to choose a new setting for Approved content only which turns off the search option.
There is a wide variety that parents can choose from in Approved Content Only.
They can choose from collections of videos created by YouTube and trusted partners.
Some of the videos in the collection include Sesame Workshop, PBS Kids and Kidz Bop. The collections have categories like arts, crafts and DIY, gaming, learning, music and more.
YouTube Kids which was launched in 2017, has been very successful at least in terms of usage metrics. More than 11 million children have downloaded the app weekly and over 70 billion videos have been viewed in the app to date.
However, there have been some problems with the app's parental controls. According to Business Insider, the app suggested that children watch conspiracy videos which claimed that that the world is flat and that the moon landing was fake.