8 ms·

Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

98 points by rey12rey 12y ago

tremendo 12y ago
I have a younger-than-thirteen daughter who would love to be able to post her video creations to YT too, and have her own channel. I had created a gmail account for her before, then she tried to create her channel and was asked for her DOB which she answered truthfully resulting in… not only no channel, her whole email was blocked and, according to their statement, eventually deleted. Yes, mea culpa. YT for kids is welcome, but alas, does not yet help make my little one happy. Is there a way to let little ones publish their own creations on their own terms? anywhere?
- jjoonathan 12y ago
  Lying about your age to get around a low-stakes boneheaded policy is about as white as a lie can get. I still use my fake birthday (Jan 1 1984) for online accounts even though I'm 25. It's not exactly Rosa Parks level civil disobedience but it seems like the least I can do. January 1 birthdays both allow the provider to cover their ass and allow you to register your contempt for the silliness in a measurable fashion.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - amitparikh 12y ago
    I still believe that COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) is, overall, beneficial legislation that puts in place the minimum rules for protecting children's PII. As the Internet becomes more accessible to a younger audience, we should be considering the societal benefits of such legislation and how it should evolve with the technology. It's shortsighted to fault Google for complying with the law.
    - jameshart 12y ago
      COPPA doesn't ban Google from providing services to kids. It just means they have to put additional precautions in place if they do - which obviously costs money, so their default position has been to opt out of servicing kids at all. This youtube announcement obviously represents a realization that that cost may be worth bearing... presumably because raising a generation of youtube-savvy kids is going to build their market for the next generation.
    - ChrisOstler 12y ago
      For me, that's where it gets interesting: as I understand, it is perfectly legal for Google to provide services to children, but they must obtain parental consent, first [1]. The problem is that isn't something they're interested in doing. [1] http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions#Verifiable http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/comp... Parental
      - VLM 12y ago
        When this happened to my son, rather than deleting everything and losing all his contacts and emails with his auntie etc etc, google just demanded I pay a bribe of 50 cents on a credit card, on the hilarious assumption that the only people in a family with access to CC are parents. At least this is how they did it back in the good old days.
        pbhjpbhj 12y ago
        >on the hilarious assumption that the only people in a family with access to CC are parents // Hilarious? How do under-13s get banks to issue them credit cards? Presumably they only allow the payment from a CC connected to an account rather than a payment card (I assume payment gateways do that sort of differentiation). Even if some under-13s can access and use a credit-card it seems likely to me that the vast majority would be blocked by such a system. I can see kids stealing cash from their parents, perhaps, but stealing when you know it's going to appear on their bank-statement?? Just to use YouTube? Then you need to be able to actually perform the payment; no-one else [that I know of] knows my CC password and it's certainly not written down anywhere.
captn3m0 12y ago
The YouTube Blog[1] has better description of the product. [1]: http://youtube-global.blogspot.in/2015/02/youtube-kids.html http://youtube-global.blogspot.in/2015/02/youtube-kids.html
- 0942v8653 12y ago
  The links to the App Store and Google Play weren't showing up for me. Here's why: <a href="https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/288696178;115706119;v">Google Play</a>
famousactress 12y ago
I can't find mention of whether or not there are ads. Ads are a deal-breaker for me with the kidlet. Currently whenever she asks to "See ostriches" or "People throwing fish!" (we brought her to Pike's Place market in Seattle and the kid was oddly obsesseed) it's a dice roll whether we sit through a Lexus ad. I'd happily pay a modest amount for a product like this one provided she doesn't have to see ads (regardless of whether targeted to kids of their Lexus-purchasing parents)
- coldpie 12y ago
  On PC, AdBlock works great on YouTube. If you're using a mobile app, yeah, I think you're SOL for now. I also would pay a monthly fee for an ad-free YouTube.
  - kaybe 12y ago
    If you block all trackers (eg ghostery) ads usually just don't show up. Seems like there are no ads without tracking.
  - 0942v8653 12y ago
    I have my Raspberry Pi set up as a DNS adblocker: https://github.com/jacobsalmela/pi-hole https://github.com/jacobsalmela/pi-hole
  - ashark 12y ago
    Recently, I've seen two things change on YouTube: 1) (a few months ago) Adblock stopped working. Fine, ads were rare, short, and skipable, didn't bother me enough to try to fix it. 2) (a few weeks ago) The percentage of videos displaying ads increased significantly, and most of them are now unskipable. I even had one that lasted for maybe two minutes with no sign of ending the other day (it hadn't repeated yet, it was that long! There was no indication of how much longer it would be) which eventually prompted me to reload the page, which clued me in that the "unskipable" ads can be skipped immediately by refreshing the page—it rarely (maybe 5% of the time, tops) plays an ad on the second load.
    - 12y ago
happyscrappy 12y ago
Wow, it looks really good, especially the old school Sesame Street giving me some memories. Lego channel is cool too but damn App Store search is not even showing it yet I had to download to the desktop and find it in Purchased.
sremani 12y ago
I would also want to know how much stuff is tracked. Disney knows the secret, that the shortest path to a parents wallet is through the kid, I am not against Google-Youtube making money out of this, but just want to know what is and what is not tracked. Of course, ad policy will also help.
impostervt 12y ago
My kids, 5 and 2, have really been into these weird toy unboxing videos recently. They're fine with me from a "ok for kids" point of view, though I don't see the attraction. Anyway, I just wonder if these type of videos will be available. example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_e8CPuVepA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_e8CPuVepA
- raldi 12y ago
  Relax, your kids are normal -- this is a well-known phenomenon amongst children born in the last decade: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/magazine/a-mothers-journey-through-the-unnerving-universe-of-unboxing-videos.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/magazine/a-mothers-journey...
  - impostervt 12y ago
    Ha! Thank you for the link. I wasn't worried, I generally figure all kids do "weird" things. I guess I'm more worried they won't be able to see these videos on the Kids youtube, and thus the app won't help me protect them from weirder things they sometimes stumble onto.
    - swalsh 12y ago
      The Disney collector lady is something like the #1 youtuber in terms of views in North America (or close the last time I checked). I don't think youtube is going to skip her.
  - ifcho 12y ago
    I also think that the way the DisneyCollector sound is recorded plays a role. It sounds a lot like binaural audio - http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8021733/3d-audio-3dio-binaural-immersive-vr-sound-times-square-new-york http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8021733/3d-audio-3dio-bina...
- vyrotek 12y ago
  These things are seriously blowing up! I've talked to so many parents who mention that their kids are hooked on these things. These kids just watch some random toy be unwrapped then hit the next suggested video for hours. I also hear stories about how then they beg their parents for the toy. They're just really long commercials. My kids don't seem as interested but it might be they're a bit old for them now. I have noticed that they watch less and less Netflix and more and more weird cartoons on YouTube instead. I have to watch them closely.
thorntonbf 12y ago
I realize that full curation probably isn't possible as this thing scales, but as a parent, this thing will live or die based on the content they allow into the stream. I love watching videos of people building stuff with my kids. Moreover, I love watching the creativeness that some of the videos inspire in my kids. Unfortunately, to date, I have had to preview most of the content my children see on YouTube so that they don't either see a video review of something that's got the f-bomb every other word, or that the sidebar video recommendations don't bring up stuff that I really don't want my kid watching. And, to be clear, these are young kids. In my mind, this is all about the content, the creators they allow into the system, and the curation of those two. I'd love to see an algorithmic way to accomplish some of this, but I expect on the front end, it'll require a lot of human filtering.
- impostervt 12y ago
  There's probably an app-idea in there. Maybe an app that costs video creators some small amount, say $5, that gets their video in a "for-kids" video app. The $5 pays to have your video reviewed and tagged so that parents can filter what they want their kid to see. As a parent, I would definitely pay for that app/service.
  - harisamin 12y ago
    Agreed, not a parent but my nieces love youtube and I’m pretty sure my sister would pay for this too
  - vertex-four 12y ago
    So... what does the video creator get out of it? Once you've got an actual monetary barrier in place, they're not going to pay for their videos to be shown just for fun.
    - impostervt 12y ago
      They get their video in front of kids that otherwise wouldn't be allowed to see it. The video can still play normal youtube ads to make them money.
swamp40 12y ago
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The lack of curation on YouTube has been a source of frustration in our house for a long time. The kids just scroll down the list on the side of the viewer and hit whatever video they think looks interesting. Then the next thing you hear is swearing, and there's no effective way to stop that from showing up on 100,000 other kid's feeds. (And it would be so easy to implement!) Our kids love the variety of YouTube. Even Netflix is too slow and inconvenient for them.
- marpstar 12y ago
  This is why I'm most excited about this too. It's too easy for kids to transition from cartoons to teenagers throwing stuff into ceiling fans. Interested to see just how far they take the curation.
- inanutshellus 12y ago
  Last week we were watching "Annie" music videos on YouTube with my four year old and a commercial for a horror movie comes on. It was a calamity. To stop the video, (which was being Chromecast onto my TV) I jumped to the couch to get my phone, waited for it to wake up, then spasmed on the screen trying to figure out how to exit or pause or whatever. It of course ignored me entirely. After all, the only reason I'd skip an ad is because I'm trying to bypass their ad-revenue. Le sigh. My wife is meanwhile trying to get my daughter's attention innocuously so she won't watch a dead, rotting woman attack a little boy. ... Needless to say, this change is welcome.
webwanderings 12y ago
Have waited too long for you guys to grow up, have family, kids...so you can make web usable for kids. This is better be good and without crapAdwares. Will give it a try.
4ndr3vv 12y ago
Don't get too excited, global Youtube audience! This is US only.
mohanrajn84 12y ago
I am trying to download from play store (from India), it shows "This Item not available in your country"
- memorion 12y ago
  try downloading it from apkmirror.com
blakeja 12y ago
Curious to know how many of you with children are going to use the time limit feature? I have a kid on the way and I have concerns about my child spending his formative years glued to youtube...
- VanillaCafe 12y ago
  As a parent of three young children, we've established weekends (Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday) as video and screen time. This is pretty easy criteria for the kids to understand which makes it easier to enforce no video Mon-Thu. The weekends are nice because the kids get the equivalent experience of Saturday morning cartoons and it lets us parents sleep in a bit. Even so, we notice that too much video (more than 40m-1h in one session) makes at least one of our kids pretty cranky. So, we might consider the time limit feature. To keep them off the screen, we just have lots of clay, crayons, scissors, construction paper, tape, legos, books, puzzles, etc. And playground visits. We often find that by the end of the day on the weekend, if it was one of those days where they watched a little more video than less, they complain that there was still [some craft project thing] that they wanted to do. So, providing a bit of structure to limit screen time ultimately is letting them get to do other things that they really want to do.
- petercooper 12y ago
  Nope. Both of my kids have used YouTube since around 18 months' old and I don't plan on ever enacting any limits on "screen time." I guess it varies by the kid, but neither of my kids seem able to stay stuck on the same mind-numbing task for long and they naturally progress to wanting to do more interactive stuff anyway. I think placing artificial limits instead provides a temptation to use their "quota" and makes the activity seem like a treat they have to use instead of just a normal part of life.
- blakeja 12y ago
  Thanks guys, appreciate the responses.
- brogrammer90 12y ago
  What if your parents limited your screen time?
adaml_623 12y ago
I want to know if it will have caching for offline use. Don't care if it is like Spotify and needs to check in occasionally but would really like to be able to have something for the kid on long haul flights.
nakedrobot2 12y ago
Good. Kudos. Too many times my kids surf their way to something weird starting from Peppa Pig or something ;-) thanks Google.
codingdave 12y ago
While I do think this is a good move for YouTube, it isn't enough to win my family's viewership, because the age-appropriate issues of YouTube are not their only problem (quality of content is still an issue), and there are other video sources if I want to educate my children via online videos. Khan Academy is the most obvious one that comes to mind, but we also will watch documentaries on Netflix, and watch the Smithsonian channel on our Roku.
jasonkostempski 12y ago
This is a great start! Ultimately, I'd rather my kid just have a 'kids account' (similar to Apple's model) and my wife and I would be the curators. In that setup Google could just expose a bunch of themed, kid friendly aggregate feeds parents could choose to include or not. For now I would settle for the ability to allow specific channels regardless of rating. For instance, I see Stampy is already in there but he swears occasionally, not enough for me to care but likely enough to get hit by an automated filter.
mikeleeorg 12y ago
In case you're curious, here are two existing apps that also curate and list only kid-friendly videos: Cakey (from the creator of HotOrNot): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cakey/id906087656 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cakey/id906087656 Wimp: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wimp.com-family-friendly-videos/id412842333 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wimp.com-family-friendly-vid...

98 points by rey12rey 12y ago

I have a younger-than-thirteen daughter who would love to be able to post her video creations to YT too, and have her own channel. I had created a gmail account for her before, then she tried to create her channel and was asked for her DOB which she answered truthfully resulting in… not only no channel, her whole email was blocked and, according to their statement, eventually deleted. Yes, mea culpa. YT for kids is welcome, but alas, does not yet help make my little one happy. Is there a way to let little ones publish their own creations on their own terms? anywhere?

jjoonathan 12y ago
Lying about your age to get around a low-stakes boneheaded policy is about as white as a lie can get. I still use my fake birthday (Jan 1 1984) for online accounts even though I'm 25. It's not exactly Rosa Parks level civil disobedience but it seems like the least I can do. January 1 birthdays both allow the provider to cover their ass and allow you to register your contempt for the silliness in a measurable fashion.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- amitparikh 12y ago
  I still believe that COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) is, overall, beneficial legislation that puts in place the minimum rules for protecting children's PII. As the Internet becomes more accessible to a younger audience, we should be considering the societal benefits of such legislation and how it should evolve with the technology. It's shortsighted to fault Google for complying with the law.
  - jameshart 12y ago
    COPPA doesn't ban Google from providing services to kids. It just means they have to put additional precautions in place if they do - which obviously costs money, so their default position has been to opt out of servicing kids at all. This youtube announcement obviously represents a realization that that cost may be worth bearing... presumably because raising a generation of youtube-savvy kids is going to build their market for the next generation.
  - ChrisOstler 12y ago
    For me, that's where it gets interesting: as I understand, it is perfectly legal for Google to provide services to children, but they must obtain parental consent, first [1]. The problem is that isn't something they're interested in doing. [1] http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions#Verifiable http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/comp... Parental
    - VLM 12y ago
      When this happened to my son, rather than deleting everything and losing all his contacts and emails with his auntie etc etc, google just demanded I pay a bribe of 50 cents on a credit card, on the hilarious assumption that the only people in a family with access to CC are parents. At least this is how they did it back in the good old days.
      - pbhjpbhj 12y ago
        >on the hilarious assumption that the only people in a family with access to CC are parents // Hilarious? How do under-13s get banks to issue them credit cards? Presumably they only allow the payment from a CC connected to an account rather than a payment card (I assume payment gateways do that sort of differentiation). Even if some under-13s can access and use a credit-card it seems likely to me that the vast majority would be blocked by such a system. I can see kids stealing cash from their parents, perhaps, but stealing when you know it's going to appear on their bank-statement?? Just to use YouTube? Then you need to be able to actually perform the payment; no-one else [that I know of] knows my CC password and it's certainly not written down anywhere.

captn3m0 12y ago

The YouTube Blog[1] has better description of the product. [1]: http://youtube-global.blogspot.in/2015/02/youtube-kids.html http://youtube-global.blogspot.in/2015/02/youtube-kids.html

0942v8653 12y ago
The links to the App Store and Google Play weren't showing up for me. Here's why: <a href="https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/288696178;115706119;v">Google Play</a>

famousactress 12y ago

I can't find mention of whether or not there are ads. Ads are a deal-breaker for me with the kidlet. Currently whenever she asks to "See ostriches" or "People throwing fish!" (we brought her to Pike's Place market in Seattle and the kid was oddly obsesseed) it's a dice roll whether we sit through a Lexus ad. I'd happily pay a modest amount for a product like this one provided she doesn't have to see ads (regardless of whether targeted to kids of their Lexus-purchasing parents)

coldpie 12y ago
On PC, AdBlock works great on YouTube. If you're using a mobile app, yeah, I think you're SOL for now. I also would pay a monthly fee for an ad-free YouTube.
- kaybe 12y ago
  If you block all trackers (eg ghostery) ads usually just don't show up. Seems like there are no ads without tracking.
- 0942v8653 12y ago
  I have my Raspberry Pi set up as a DNS adblocker: https://github.com/jacobsalmela/pi-hole https://github.com/jacobsalmela/pi-hole
- ashark 12y ago
  Recently, I've seen two things change on YouTube: 1) (a few months ago) Adblock stopped working. Fine, ads were rare, short, and skipable, didn't bother me enough to try to fix it. 2) (a few weeks ago) The percentage of videos displaying ads increased significantly, and most of them are now unskipable. I even had one that lasted for maybe two minutes with no sign of ending the other day (it hadn't repeated yet, it was that long! There was no indication of how much longer it would be) which eventually prompted me to reload the page, which clued me in that the "unskipable" ads can be skipped immediately by refreshing the page—it rarely (maybe 5% of the time, tops) plays an ad on the second load.
  - 12y ago

happyscrappy 12y ago

Wow, it looks really good, especially the old school Sesame Street giving me some memories. Lego channel is cool too but damn App Store search is not even showing it yet I had to download to the desktop and find it in Purchased.

sremani 12y ago

I would also want to know how much stuff is tracked. Disney knows the secret, that the shortest path to a parents wallet is through the kid, I am not against Google-Youtube making money out of this, but just want to know what is and what is not tracked. Of course, ad policy will also help.

impostervt 12y ago

My kids, 5 and 2, have really been into these weird toy unboxing videos recently. They're fine with me from a "ok for kids" point of view, though I don't see the attraction. Anyway, I just wonder if these type of videos will be available. example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_e8CPuVepA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_e8CPuVepA

raldi 12y ago
Relax, your kids are normal -- this is a well-known phenomenon amongst children born in the last decade: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/magazine/a-mothers-journey-through-the-unnerving-universe-of-unboxing-videos.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/magazine/a-mothers-journey...
- impostervt 12y ago
  Ha! Thank you for the link. I wasn't worried, I generally figure all kids do "weird" things. I guess I'm more worried they won't be able to see these videos on the Kids youtube, and thus the app won't help me protect them from weirder things they sometimes stumble onto.
  - swalsh 12y ago
    The Disney collector lady is something like the #1 youtuber in terms of views in North America (or close the last time I checked). I don't think youtube is going to skip her.
- ifcho 12y ago
  I also think that the way the DisneyCollector sound is recorded plays a role. It sounds a lot like binaural audio - http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8021733/3d-audio-3dio-binaural-immersive-vr-sound-times-square-new-york http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8021733/3d-audio-3dio-bina...
vyrotek 12y ago
These things are seriously blowing up! I've talked to so many parents who mention that their kids are hooked on these things. These kids just watch some random toy be unwrapped then hit the next suggested video for hours. I also hear stories about how then they beg their parents for the toy. They're just really long commercials. My kids don't seem as interested but it might be they're a bit old for them now. I have noticed that they watch less and less Netflix and more and more weird cartoons on YouTube instead. I have to watch them closely.

thorntonbf 12y ago

I realize that full curation probably isn't possible as this thing scales, but as a parent, this thing will live or die based on the content they allow into the stream. I love watching videos of people building stuff with my kids. Moreover, I love watching the creativeness that some of the videos inspire in my kids. Unfortunately, to date, I have had to preview most of the content my children see on YouTube so that they don't either see a video review of something that's got the f-bomb every other word, or that the sidebar video recommendations don't bring up stuff that I really don't want my kid watching. And, to be clear, these are young kids. In my mind, this is all about the content, the creators they allow into the system, and the curation of those two. I'd love to see an algorithmic way to accomplish some of this, but I expect on the front end, it'll require a lot of human filtering.

impostervt 12y ago
There's probably an app-idea in there. Maybe an app that costs video creators some small amount, say $5, that gets their video in a "for-kids" video app. The $5 pays to have your video reviewed and tagged so that parents can filter what they want their kid to see. As a parent, I would definitely pay for that app/service.
- harisamin 12y ago
  Agreed, not a parent but my nieces love youtube and I’m pretty sure my sister would pay for this too
- vertex-four 12y ago
  So... what does the video creator get out of it? Once you've got an actual monetary barrier in place, they're not going to pay for their videos to be shown just for fun.
  - impostervt 12y ago
    They get their video in front of kids that otherwise wouldn't be allowed to see it. The video can still play normal youtube ads to make them money.

swamp40 12y ago

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The lack of curation on YouTube has been a source of frustration in our house for a long time. The kids just scroll down the list on the side of the viewer and hit whatever video they think looks interesting. Then the next thing you hear is swearing, and there's no effective way to stop that from showing up on 100,000 other kid's feeds. (And it would be so easy to implement!) Our kids love the variety of YouTube. Even Netflix is too slow and inconvenient for them.

marpstar 12y ago
This is why I'm most excited about this too. It's too easy for kids to transition from cartoons to teenagers throwing stuff into ceiling fans. Interested to see just how far they take the curation.
inanutshellus 12y ago
Last week we were watching "Annie" music videos on YouTube with my four year old and a commercial for a horror movie comes on. It was a calamity. To stop the video, (which was being Chromecast onto my TV) I jumped to the couch to get my phone, waited for it to wake up, then spasmed on the screen trying to figure out how to exit or pause or whatever. It of course ignored me entirely. After all, the only reason I'd skip an ad is because I'm trying to bypass their ad-revenue. Le sigh. My wife is meanwhile trying to get my daughter's attention innocuously so she won't watch a dead, rotting woman attack a little boy. ... Needless to say, this change is welcome.

webwanderings 12y ago

Have waited too long for you guys to grow up, have family, kids...so you can make web usable for kids. This is better be good and without crapAdwares. Will give it a try.

4ndr3vv 12y ago

Don't get too excited, global Youtube audience! This is US only.

mohanrajn84 12y ago

I am trying to download from play store (from India), it shows "This Item not available in your country"

memorion 12y ago
try downloading it from apkmirror.com

blakeja 12y ago

Curious to know how many of you with children are going to use the time limit feature? I have a kid on the way and I have concerns about my child spending his formative years glued to youtube...

VanillaCafe 12y ago
As a parent of three young children, we've established weekends (Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday) as video and screen time. This is pretty easy criteria for the kids to understand which makes it easier to enforce no video Mon-Thu. The weekends are nice because the kids get the equivalent experience of Saturday morning cartoons and it lets us parents sleep in a bit. Even so, we notice that too much video (more than 40m-1h in one session) makes at least one of our kids pretty cranky. So, we might consider the time limit feature. To keep them off the screen, we just have lots of clay, crayons, scissors, construction paper, tape, legos, books, puzzles, etc. And playground visits. We often find that by the end of the day on the weekend, if it was one of those days where they watched a little more video than less, they complain that there was still [some craft project thing] that they wanted to do. So, providing a bit of structure to limit screen time ultimately is letting them get to do other things that they really want to do.
petercooper 12y ago
Nope. Both of my kids have used YouTube since around 18 months' old and I don't plan on ever enacting any limits on "screen time." I guess it varies by the kid, but neither of my kids seem able to stay stuck on the same mind-numbing task for long and they naturally progress to wanting to do more interactive stuff anyway. I think placing artificial limits instead provides a temptation to use their "quota" and makes the activity seem like a treat they have to use instead of just a normal part of life.
blakeja 12y ago
Thanks guys, appreciate the responses.
brogrammer90 12y ago
What if your parents limited your screen time?

adaml_623 12y ago

I want to know if it will have caching for offline use. Don't care if it is like Spotify and needs to check in occasionally but would really like to be able to have something for the kid on long haul flights.

nakedrobot2 12y ago

Good. Kudos. Too many times my kids surf their way to something weird starting from Peppa Pig or something ;-) thanks Google.

codingdave 12y ago

While I do think this is a good move for YouTube, it isn't enough to win my family's viewership, because the age-appropriate issues of YouTube are not their only problem (quality of content is still an issue), and there are other video sources if I want to educate my children via online videos. Khan Academy is the most obvious one that comes to mind, but we also will watch documentaries on Netflix, and watch the Smithsonian channel on our Roku.

jasonkostempski 12y ago

This is a great start! Ultimately, I'd rather my kid just have a 'kids account' (similar to Apple's model) and my wife and I would be the curators. In that setup Google could just expose a bunch of themed, kid friendly aggregate feeds parents could choose to include or not. For now I would settle for the ability to allow specific channels regardless of rating. For instance, I see Stampy is already in there but he swears occasionally, not enough for me to care but likely enough to get hit by an automated filter.

mikeleeorg 12y ago

In case you're curious, here are two existing apps that also curate and list only kid-friendly videos: Cakey (from the creator of HotOrNot): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cakey/id906087656 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cakey/id906087656 Wimp: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wimp.com-family-friendly-videos/id412842333 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wimp.com-family-friendly-vid...