Know how to avoid that our children see all kinds of content in Youtube, it is key to maintaining a healthy mind. Although this platform has a policy that prohibits pornographic or highly aggressive content, there are always some not suitable for minors.
Usually, YouTube does not know when a child or an adult accesses, for this reason you cannot do a content lock automatically. But yes offers us your parental control, so that we can establish a user with limitations for children.
Activate this option, it brings us many benefits for our children. We will comment on all these below, as well as some tips to protect them from the Internet and its dangers.
What is YouTube parental control and what is it for?
Parental control is the protection that our children have when using a website, in this case Youtube. As we well know, on this platform, users, despite the policy restrictions, can upload almost any type of video, and among them, those that show delicate contents for the mind of a child.
Our children should only enjoy content for their age, and not those that encourage violence, sex or other inappropriate. It is true that we will not find pornographic scenes in Youtube, but yes conversations where they mention them, these contents can open minors to a world for which they are not yet ready.
To prevent them from viewing inappropriate content, constant monitoring and activating YouTube parental control is recommended, since we will program the platform, so that it filters all the contents that it has to show, offering only the right ones. Thanks to YouTube’s smart system, videos that are not suitable for our children will be automatically blocked, without being able to be viewed from that account Youtube.
How does YouTube parental control work? Main features
Parental control, is the best option we can activate to limit our children’s access to unsuitable content. Its configuration is composed with a set of options and functions.
As shown below:
How to block content
With the option to block content, we will can disable for our user, the contents and selected channels. When we select content as blocked, we will not see it again in our results list. If we apply blocking on a channel, none of the content uploaded under the authorship of that channel, it will show us in the results, and the only way to unlock it is by accessing the panel.
Content settings
The setting, allows us to limit content based on be the profile created for our child.
When creating the Kids profile, we will have to choose which of the following categories we want for it:
- Preschool: This category includes all the contents that have been marked for children, but up to four years.
- Small children: for this category the contents shown are cartoons, crafts, songs and more, which are allowed for children between 5 and 7 years old.
- Older children: all contents up to 12 years old, will be available for our children, including documentaries, video games, music, video clips, and more.
- Personally: the configuration we choose it, we express what are the contents that we want to be displayed and those that should not be shown, in this way our children will see, only what is subject to our approval.
Only approved content
Our children can only enjoy content that is grouped in the category we select. No content outside of this category may be viewed by the minor, even if it is according to their age. This is the strictest section, but it is most appropriate when we have such curious children. Selected categories, only group videos that YouTube staff or its partners have approved for the same.
Disable search
This option, allows us to disable the YouTube search engine, so that our children cannot access content outside of the selected categories. If we deactivate the search, all records will be erased and no one will be able to search for new content, and you will only enjoy those that are displayed on the approved list for YouTube Kids.
Clear search and play history
To the clear search history, all video suggestions on YouTube startup will be removed, and only content suitable for the category approved for the child will be offered.
Pause search and play histories
Usually Youtube uses previously viewed videos as a reference to offer similar content, but when pausing search and playback histories, no suggestion content will be offered, but only those elected personally or by the category of the selected profile.
What are the benefits of activating YouTube parental controls?
When we activate parental control we get many benefits, not only because we protect our children from inappropriate content, but also because we won’t have to constantly monitor them, and we will have more freedom for all our trades.
With this YouTube function, we can be sure that the little ones are not watching aggressive or perverted content, including the great advantage that they will be forced to watch only instructional videos, which allow to develop professionally, emotionally, and personally. We cannot prevent them from connecting to the Internet, but yes we can control what they see, and that is the secret to preserve the childhood of our children.
Tips to protect your children from the risks of the Internet
Parental control it’s a very good YouTube feature, but we should not leave all the responsibility to an algorithm, because our duty as parents requires us to use our human part, to protect them.
Therefore, we leave you these tips:
Raise awareness about the dangers of the Internet
Preventing our children from connecting to the Internet is a task that has failed in millions of cases in the world. But one task we must do as parents is to instruct them about all the dangers found in this digital world. It is normal that they want to connect, but they should not see all kinds of content. If we explain them properly and without taboos, what are the contents they should see, and the why of things, we will surely create awareness.
Avoid threats
Many times we consider that by threatening our children, they will understand what we once explained to them. But this is not entirely true, since assume the cause of the correction as incorrect, because they can receive some punishment, but not because it is bad.
Computer in full view
Never organize a computer in a blind spot in the house, since it is suitable for the minor to carry out activities behind our backs. It is true that we can configure the connections, and parental control, but on many occasions children obtain knowledge to circumvent these limitations. Detail that we must avoid at all costs.
Rules and schedule
Establish a schedule of use, it is the best way to avoid leisure in the childas we will only grant you the right to use the computer for a short period of time. Regarding the rules, the first thing we must highlight and comply with is constant conversation, because it is the only way to understand the child and his curiosities, and thus prevent others be those who guide you in bad ways.