YouTube will let parents stop their teens from endlessly scrolling short videos

YouTube announced new parental controls on Wednesday. The platform has ramped up efforts to protect young users in recent months in response to scrutiny. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

NEW YORK — YouTube will now let parents limit the amount of time their teens can spend scrolling through its short-form video feature, Shorts, or block them all together.

The option is part of a group of new parental controls the popular video platform announced on Wednesday. YouTube, like many tech platforms, has ramped up efforts to protect young users in recent months, in response to growing scrutiny from families, advocates and lawmakers.

The option to endlessly scroll through short videos can make social media platforms addictive, especially for young people, parents have argued.

Parents supervising their teen’s account will now be able to set a time limit on Shorts, ranging from two hours to zero minutes. For example, parents “can set the Shorts feed limit to zero when they want their teen to use YouTube to focus on homework, and change it to 60 minutes during a long car trip to be entertained,” YouTube said.

Parents will also be able to set custom bedtime and “take a break” reminders for their kids — automated versions of which YouTube already applies by default for users under the age of 18.

YouTube is adding a new sign-up process to make it easier for parents to create supervised accounts for their kids. It will also simplify the process of switching between minor and adult accounts on shared devices.

And the platform is updating its guidelines for the types of content that will be recommended and accessible to teen users. It will prioritize videos centered around “curiosity and inspiration,” “building life skills and experiences” and “credible information that supports wellbeing,” and other positive categories, YouTube said. Teens are already blocked from repeatedly viewing videos that could send them down dangerous content rabbit holes, such as those idealizing certain body types.

The updates come after YouTube said last year it would use artificial intelligence to guess users’ ages, and would place suspected teen users into its more protective under-18 settings regardless of what birthdate they provided at sign up. Other major online platforms, including Instagram, ChatGPT and Character.AI, have also recently rolled out additional parental controls and content restrictions for young users.

YouTube parent company Google has also been in the spotlight this week following a viral LinkedIn post. Online child safety advocate Melissa McKay posted screenshots that showed Google alerting her almost-13-year-old son that he’d soon have the option to remove parental supervision from his account.

“Google is asserting authority over a boundary that does not belong to them,” McKay, president at the nonprofit Digital Childhood Institute, said in the post.

Google has updated its policy to require parental approval before users 13 and older can remove parental supervision of their account, Google Senior Director for Privacy, Safety and Security Kate Charlet wrote in a LinkedIn post responding to McKay. The change builds on the company’s policy of emailing both parents and kids when an account will soon have the option to turn off supervision.

“These changes better ensure protections stay in place until both the parent and teen feel ready for the next step,” Charlet wrote.

By Clare Duffy, CNN