Channel Lab Blog
Safe YouTube tips, settings guides, and screen time help for parents.
Disable Autoplay on Supervised YouTube. Your Kid Cannot Turn It Back On.
Autoplay is the quiet engine behind "just one more video." On regular YouTube, the next clip can start without anyone choosing it. On a supervised kid account, parents get a different switch. YouTube calls it Disable autoplay. Flip it on, and YouTube says your child...
YouTube’s Bedtime Reminder Is a Nudge. It Is Not a Lock.
YouTube has two screen time features that sound stronger than they are. Bedtime reminders and Take a Break reminders are on by default for users under 18. They show up as a full-screen message over Shorts and regular videos. For a teen, that looks like the app is...
Supervised YouTube Has Three Content Levels. None Is an Allowlist.
A supervised kid account sounds like a locked-down list of channels you chose. It is not. On the main YouTube app, a supervised kid account is a parent-managed experience for children under 13 (or the local age of consent). You pick a content setting. YouTube's...
YouTube Estimates Age Even If the Birthday Says Adult
The birthday on a Google Account used to feel like the whole story. On YouTube, it is not. YouTube now runs an age estimation model that tries to tell whether a user is over or under 18. It does this even when the account birthday says the person is an adult. If the...
YouTube Kids Still Has Ads. Premium Only Removes the Ones Marked Ad.
YouTube Kids is free. That usually means ads. Parents often miss the second half of that deal. YouTube is clear about it in the product docs: the kids app shows limited paid advertising so the app can stay free. When your child taps a video, they may get a short...
YouTube Kids Has Four Content Modes. Only One Is a Real Allowlist.
Most parents leave YouTube Kids on an age setting and assume the hard part is done. It is not. YouTube Kids gives you four content modes: Preschool, Younger, Older, and Approve content yourself. The first three still lean on automated systems that pull from the wider...
YouTube Put an Off Switch on Shorts. It Goes All the Way to Zero
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...
YouTube’s New AI Labels Skip the Cartoons Your Kids Actually Watch
It is late August in Atlanta, which means backpacks, air that could steam a dumpling, and somebody in my house asking for just one video before school. YouTube Kids is even running a back to school arts takeover right now, through September 7, with Ms. Rachel, the...
Guess what… Your child will be happy watching different things on YouTube
Kids often get stuck in a rut with their YouTube viewing, gravitating toward familiar content, studies show that boys, for instance, spend up to 60% of their screen time watching other kids play video games. With kids aged 8 and under averaging 2.5 hours daily on...