You can decide what YouTube experience is best for your family. Use the questions below to learn the differences between a supervised account on YouTube and the YouTube Kids app.

What is it?

• YouTube Kids: A separate app that’s a safer and simpler experience for kids. Comes with tools for parents and caregivers to guide their viewing journey. Learn more at youtube.com/kids.

• Supervised experiences for pre-teens: A parent-managed version of regular YouTube with limited features and digital well-being protections. Comes with content settings for pre-teens. Learn more about pre-teen supervised experiences.

• Supervised experiences for teens: A voluntary supervised experience of regular YouTube that parents or teens can set up. Parents get insights into their teen’s channel activity. Learn more about teen supervised experiences.

Who is it for?

• YouTube Kids: Kids whose parents want to handpick content for them to watch. Kids whose parents want to choose content for them to watch based on 3 age-based content settings: Preschool (ages 4 and under), Younger (ages 5–8), and Older (ages 9–12).

• Supervised experiences for pre-teens: Kids under 13 (or the relevant age in their country or region whose parents decide they’re ready to explore YouTube with parent-selected content settings applied.

• Supervised experiences for teens: Teens over 13 (or the relevant age in their country or region who are using YouTube but still want some supervision.

How much content is available for my child?

• YouTube Kids: Includes a smaller selection of videos than a supervised account on YouTube. The amount of available content changes according to the content setting you choose (in order): Preschool (ages 4 and under), Younger (ages 5–8), and Older (ages 9–12).

• Supervised experiences for pre-teens: Includes more videos and music than our separate YouTube Kids app. The amount of available content changes according to the content setting you choose: Explore, Explore more, and Most of YouTube. Kids with the Explore more or Most of YouTube content setting can read video comments.

• Supervised experiences for teens: All of YouTube, except age-restricted content.

Supervised accounts on YouTube are available for children under 13 (or applicable age in your country) with a Google Account managed by Family Link. By setting up a supervised account linked to your own, and using your child’s account to sign in to YouTube, you can adjust their experience as described in the first FAQ above.

Learn more to get started.

As a parent, you’ve watched your child grow and have seen their interests change. Wherever these new interests lead them, YouTube’s diverse platform of content creators offer entertainment, ideas, perspectives, and communities for them to explore. You know your child best and that’s why we offer three content setting options for you to choose:

• Explore: Generally aligns with content ratings for viewers ages 9+. This will feature a range of vlogs, tutorials, gaming videos, music videos, news, educational content, DIY, arts and crafts, dance, and more. No live streams, except for Premieres.
• Explore more: Generally aligns with content ratings for viewers ages 13+. This setting will include a larger set of videos – including live streams – in the same categories as Explore.
• Most of YouTube: Includes almost everything on YouTube, excluding content marked 18+ by channels, our systems, or our reviewers.

These content settings contain a vast number of videos and are significantly larger than our separate YouTube Kids app. Our systems work hard to prevent inappropriate content, but are not perfect and will make mistakes. Some videos may be unsuitable for kids. If you prefer a more limited experience for your child, YouTube Kids may be a better option.

There are 3 content settings you can choose from. Learn more about your options and which one might be right for your pre-teen.

People around the world use YouTube to express their ideas and opinions freely, and we believe that a broad range of perspectives ultimately makes us a stronger and more informed society, even if we disagree with some of those views. Our Community Guidelines set out what’s allowed and not allowed on YouTube, and also apply in a supervised experience.

By setting up a supervised account for your child, and choosing a content setting for them, this will provide additional limits on the content they can find or get recommended.

We care deeply about our users and work hard to exclude unsuitable videos, but no automated system of filters is perfect. You can change app permissions and content settings for your child at any time. If you find something you believe violates our Community Guidelines, please report it for review. This makes YouTube better for everyone.

Your child’s supervised account is linked to your own account, which gives you the ability to adjust their account settings. This includes changing their content setting, pausing or clearing their history, blocking channels, and if needed, removing their access to YouTube. Learn more here.

If you decide your child is ready to explore YouTube with a supervised account, the content setting you choose for them will also apply to official albums, singles, videos, remixes, live performances and more when they sign in to YouTube Music on Android, iOS and desktop.

Supervised accounts are supported for YouTube Music. The content setting you choose for their supervised account will also apply to YouTube Music content when they sign in to the app or website.

YouTube is a part of Google and adheres to Google’s privacy policies and principles. We know it’s important for you to understand what personal info we collect in association with your child’s Google Account. We also know you need to know why we collect it, and how you can control and delete that info. The Google Privacy Policy and our Privacy Notice for Google Accounts for children under 13 (or the relevant age in their country/region) explains our privacy practices.

Your child can manage and learn more about their YouTube privacy settings and controls under "Your Data in YouTube in their account. This page includes a summary of their video and activity data and settings to manage this data. The page also details info on how their data is used to improve their YouTube experience, like reminding them what they’ve watched and giving recommendations.

As the parent manager of your child’s Google Account, you can pause or clear their search and watch history from Family Link. You can also clear the history from your Parent Settings Family Center page in YouTube.

To better protect children, ads in certain categories are prohibited and personalized ads are turned off. Viewers of "made for kids" content may see an ad bumper before and after a video ad is shown. This bumper helps alert them when an advertisement is starting and ending. If you have a YouTube Premium family plan, your child is eligible for ad-free content and other shared benefits of membership.

Videos where the creator has told us there’s a paid product placement or endorsement in their video will be shown to supervised accounts on YouTube. These videos must also comply with the ad policy on videos that are made for kids.

Parents can view their teen’s channel activity in Family Center. Once accounts are linked, parents can see:

• The channels that their teen owns and the names of the channels their teen can upload videos to. Parents can view info for these channels such as profile picture, channel banner, handle, bio, and number of subscribers.

• How many public, private, and unlisted videos their teen has uploaded to their channels.

• How many live streams their teen has hosted on their channels.

• How many comments their teen has posted on other videos.

• How many channels their teen subscribes to.

Parents will receive email notifications to get updates about their teen’s channel activity, like when they post a new video or start a live stream. Email notifications can be turned off at any time if you no longer wish to get them.