You Can Now Prevent Your Children From Watching Short Videos on YouTube.

Short videos are addictive . Furthermore, they’re often low-quality, AI-generated, contain misinformation, or a combination of these, and can negatively impact our attention span and mental health . In short , they’re simply not very good for us. Adults have a hard time controlling their scrolling habits, but for children, it’s a whole different story, and that presents a serious challenge.

Banning short-form video apps like TikTok is fairly straightforward. But what about apps that feature short videos as just one component? Take YouTube, for example: you might not be concerned about your child’s limited access to the app or website to view approved long-form videos, but constant short videos (Shorts) undermine this system. Any type of short video is a problem, but YouTube Shorts are particularly troublesome, allowing children to watch truly awful content, often created by artificial intelligence.

Choose whether your children watch short videos on YouTube.

Fortunately, it appears YouTube is finally giving parents some control in this regard. As TechCrunch noted , YouTube announced updates to its parental controls on Wednesday. While several changes are coming, the main one for me concerns Shorts. YouTube will not only allow parents to set a timer for how often their children watch Shorts, but will also set it to zero—effectively blocking Shorts for their children’s and teens’ accounts.

This should be good news for all parents trying to limit their children’s viewing of short videos. You can allow them to watch other types of videos on YouTube Kids, or even regular YouTube if it’s a teen account, without worrying about them spending hours immersed in a world of short videos.

Here, control can be even more granular than with a complete ban. Because you always control the timer, YouTube claims you can customize it based on the situation: you could set the timer for short videos to zero during homework time, then suggest 30 minutes of scrolling after dinner. You could increase this time to 60 minutes on weekends or in the car. If your child is supervised, you can also manage custom bedtime and recess reminders.

This isn’t the first time YouTube has given users more control over short videos. Last week, the company launched a new search filter that lets you choose which long videos appear in search results, and since October, it’s been possible to limit the number of short videos you can watch per day. YouTube and its parent company, Google, are also expanding parental controls and strengthening protections for children and teens. YouTube now uses artificial intelligence to determine your age , and if it believes you’re under 18, it will add restrictions to your account. Google is also giving parents more control over supervised accounts: previously, teens could turn off supervision after turning 13 , but now parental consent is required .

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