It is the first Monday of a school week in Atlanta, which means backpacks by the door and somebody asking if one more video counts as getting ready. I have two of those somebodies, Evan and Colin. One more video is never one more video. On YouTube, one more video is Shorts, and Shorts is a hallway with no doors.
In January, YouTube said parents on supervised teen accounts could set a daily limit on time in the Shorts feed, including a setting of zero minutes. Jennifer Flannery O’Connor, YouTube’s VP of product management, called it an industry-first. The company’s own example is almost too on the nose: set the limit to zero when you want homework, then bump it to 60 minutes for a long car trip.
By mid April, YouTube spokesperson Makenzie Spiller told The Verge the zero-minute option was live for all parents and rolling out to everyone, including regular adult accounts. The Verge tested it. Hit the limit, and Shorts drop off the Home screen. The Shorts tab just sits there saying you reached your feed limit. That is the whole trick. Not a lecture. A blank wall.
If you want to try it tonight: open the YouTube app, tap your profile, then Settings, then Time management, then Shorts feed limit, then zero. CNN reported the parent range on supervised accounts as two hours down to zero. YouTube Help still notes that on a regular account, the reminder can be dismissed. So if your kid is not on a supervised account, this is a sticky note, not a lock. The lock only holds when YouTube thinks you are the parent.
I am not anti video. I am anti conveyor belt. The American Academy of Pediatrics talks about media with five Cs: Child, Content, Calm, Crowding Out, and Communication. Shorts is Content and Crowding Out wearing the same hoodie. It is not a show you picked. It is a feed that keeps going until somebody else stops it. A zero-minute timer does not pick better channels. It just turns the hallway off so a full video, one you actually chose, can exist.
YouTube will still recommend the next long video. Take a Break and Bedtime reminders still fire. Those are useful, and they are not the same as killing Shorts. If your house is anything like mine, the fight is not can they watch a video. The fight is can they stop watching the next 40 seconds, and the next 40 after that. Zero minutes is the first time YouTube has given parents a switch that matches that sentence.
I still pick the channels. I still sit in the room. I also like a setting that does what it says. Zero means zero. Put it on before breakfast. You can always turn it back up for the car ride to practice.
Sources: YouTube blog on supervised accounts; CNN on Shorts parental controls; The Verge on the zero-minute Shorts limit; YouTube Help: Shorts feed limit; AAP 5 Cs of media use.