YouTube is adding a Family Center hub along with a feature that allows parents to link their accounts to those of their teen children for insight on child use patterns. Linked parents will receive alerts with aggregated information about things like the number of new uploads, subscriptions and comments, or when a teen starts a live stream. What they won’t get are details about the content itself. YouTube calls it “a collaborative approach to teen supervision on YouTube.” The move comes as federal and state legislators get more aggressive about regulating online safety for minors. Continue reading YouTube Adds Family Center, Parent Insights on Teen Viewing

Google’s YouTube is rolling out a version of its video service that will allow parents to supervise the viewing of tweens and teens that have outgrown YouTube Kids but aren’t quite ready for the unrestricted video platform. Currently, children under the age of 13 in the U.S. are legally barred from regular YouTube. The new option lets parents set up a managed account for children and teens that will prevent them from uploading videos or commenting. Parents will also have different content filters to restrict video viewing. Continue reading YouTube to Launch Restricted Version for Tweens and Teens

Since YouTube debuted YouTube Kids three years ago, parents have complained about their ability to control the content. Now, the company is adding three features to respond to those concerns. A white-list feature parents requested allows them to handpick the content for their children. The company also introduced pre-screened content with partners, including, initially, Sesame Workshop and PBS Kids. Third is an option to set search settings to only permit channels “verified by the YouTube Kids team.” Continue reading YouTube Launches Parental Control Features for Kids Service