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YouTube Expands Parental Controls for Teens With Shorts Time Limits and New Guidance

The company says the updates prioritize age-appropriate viewing in response to growing safety scrutiny.

Overview

  • Parents of supervised teens can set limits on Shorts scrolling, with a zero‑minute block option beginning to roll out.
  • Custom Bedtime and Take a Break reminders are available for supervised accounts, building on default wellbeing settings for under‑18 users.
  • New teen recommendation principles and a creator guide were developed with youth advisers and organizations including UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers, the American Psychological Association, and Boston Children’s Hospital’s Digital Wellness Lab.
  • An updated sign‑up and account‑switching flow will let parents create kid accounts and toggle profiles in the mobile app with a few taps, rolling out in the coming weeks.
  • The changes follow YouTube’s AI age‑estimation push to place suspected minors in protected settings and Google’s move to require parental approval before a teen can remove supervision.