YouTube Strengthens Parental Controls to Improve Children’s Online Safety

YouTube has announced major improvements to its parental control features, giving parents greater control over how their children consume short-form video content. With the latest update, parents can now limit the time spent watching YouTube Shorts or block Shorts entirely, addressing growing concerns around excessive screen time among children.

Parents Can Now Control YouTube Shorts Viewing

YouTube has introduced new tools that allow parents to manage how much time their children spend watching YouTube Shorts, a format that many kids tend to watch for hours at a stretch. The new controls are designed to help families encourage healthier screen habits.

How the Shorts Time Limit Feature Works

Under the new feature, parents can set a daily Shorts viewing limit ranging from 15 minutes to 2 hours. YouTube has also confirmed that it will soon introduce an option to set the timer to zero, which will allow parents to completely disable Shorts for their children.

This update builds on YouTube’s broader screen time limit feature, which was first launched in October 2025.

Children Cannot Change These Settings

YouTube has clarified that children will not be able to modify or disable these parental control settings. Once parents set a viewing limit or block Shorts, the restriction will remain fully enforced, giving parents confidence that children cannot exceed the approved screen time.

What YouTube Has to Say

Jennifer Flannery O’Connor, Vice President of Product Management at YouTube, said this is the first feature in the industry that gives parents complete control over short-form video consumption.

According to her, the update offers both flexibility for parents and better tools to monitor and guide children’s screen time habits in a responsible way.

Bedtime and ‘Take a Break’ Reminders for Kids

YouTube is also extending Bedtime and Take a Break reminders to children’s accounts. These reminders were previously available only for adult users.

With this change, parents can decide:

• When children should stop watching YouTube

• When they should take breaks from screen time

Update Comes Amid Growing Regulatory Scrutiny

The rollout comes at a time when governments and regulators worldwide are closely examining how social media and video platforms affect children and teenagers. Many countries are questioning whether digital platforms are doing enough to ensure online safety for younger users.

Easier Kids Account Setup Coming Soon

In the coming weeks, YouTube plans to introduce a simplified sign-up experience in its mobile app. This will allow parents to:

• Create new kids’ accounts more easily

• Switch between multiple family accounts with just a few taps

The goal is to ensure that each family member accesses content appropriate to their age.

AI-Based Age Detection Technology

Last year, YouTube rolled out AI-powered age estimation technology to identify users under the age of 18. This feature is currently active in:

• The United States

• The United Kingdom

• Switzerland

• Selected countries in the European Economic Area

YouTube has stated that it plans to expand this technology to more countries in the future.