Almost everything a young child watches on YouTube can be found somewhere with an ending. If you do use one, YouTube Kids set so that your child sees only videos you’ve approved.
Most of what follows is YouTube describing how its own app works. Where someone outside YouTube has tested it, we say so.
Does a young child need YouTube at all?
No. What YouTube offers that nothing else does is endless choice, picked for your child by an algorithm, one video straight after another. That is convenient for a parent at teatime, but it isn’t something a five-year-old needs.
The alternatives have one thing YouTube doesn’t: programmes that finish.
- Your national broadcaster’s children’s service. BBC iPlayer in the UK has no adverts, lets you switch autoplay off and has a PIN lock for older content, though it needs a TV licence. ABC iview does the same job in Australia. PBS KIDS Video in the US is free, but its videos play one after another and can’t be stopped from doing so.
- A streaming service’s kids’ profile. Disney+ Junior Mode shows only content rated for all ages and has no commercial breaks. Netflix and most other services you may already pay for have kids’ profiles too.
- Episodes you’ve downloaded. No algorithm, no next video, and no wifi needed, which makes them the best travel option going.
If YouTube is already part of family life, or there’s a channel your child loves that lives nowhere else, read on.
If you do use it, which one?
YouTube Kids, with every video approved by you.
What is YouTube Kids?
It’s a separate, free app from YouTube for children up to 12, with its own simpler look and a parent code to lock the settings. You create a profile for each child, up to eight, and choose one of three content levels:
- Preschool, for 4 and under
- Younger, for 5 to 8
- Older, for 9 to 12
Normal YouTube is a different thing altogether. Its own rules say a child under 13 can only use it through a supervised account a parent sets up. More on that below.
What gets through?
More than most parents expect. YouTube Kids is filled by automated systems drawing from all of YouTube, not by people. In YouTube’s own words: “We can’t manually review all videos and no automated system is perfect.” Videos your child finds by searching are not checked by a person at all.
If something gets through, you can block the video or channel and report it. But that only works once your child has already seen it.
Questions like this one, answered every Thursday. Free.
Which setting makes it safe?
Approve content yourself. With it switched on, your child can watch only the videos, channels and collections you’ve picked, and the search bar disappears. By YouTube’s own description, nothing reaches them that you haven’t chosen first. Adverts are the exception to check: YouTube’s help pages don’t say whether they still appear in this mode. It’s the one setting in the app worth the faff.
If hand-picking everything isn’t realistic, the next best step is turning Search off. That limits your child to channels YouTube Kids has checked. YouTube still warns that something unsuitable could slip through, but the pool it can come from is much smaller.
Whichever you choose, set a parent code so the settings stay set, and use the built-in timer if you want the app to call time instead of you.
Are there adverts?
Yes. YouTube Kids is free because it shows a limited number of paid adverts, each marked “Ad”. YouTube bans some categories from them, food and drink among them.
The ones to watch for aren’t labelled. A video uploaded by a creator that features a toy, a game or a brand is not counted as an advert, even when the company behind it advertises in the app. Unboxing videos are the obvious example. Approve content yourself keeps those out too, unless you’ve picked them.
When should they move to normal YouTube?
When YouTube Kids starts to feel babyish, and not by handing over your account. YouTube’s own next step is designed for about nine and up.
Normal YouTube requires a child under 13 to use a supervised account, which you set up and manage from your own Google account. You choose one of three content levels:
| Content level | Roughly for | What it opens up |
|---|---|---|
| Older kids | 9 and over | Videos generally suitable for this age |
| Teens | 13 and over | A wider range, still no age-restricted videos |
| Older teens | 16 and over | Wider again, still no age-restricted videos |
From your account you can block channels, and since January 2026 you can put a timer on Shorts, YouTube’s endless feed of short videos, or switch them off altogether. How to switch Shorts off.
The move is a real step up. A supervised account has no approve-only option like YouTube Kids. You’re choosing a level and trusting the filter, which is why it’s worth waiting until they’re ready rather than until they ask.
What does normal YouTube look like for a young child?
Riskier than its kids’ app, by design. In a 2019 study, researchers started from the top results of toddler searches on normal YouTube and followed its recommendations. A child clicking along that way had a 3.5% chance of reaching an unsuitable video within ten clicks. That data is several years old, and YouTube has changed its systems since, but nobody has published a newer test.
If your child watches normal YouTube on your phone or the family tablet, they are watching it as you, with your history shaping what comes next.
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See how YouTube rates at each age in the scorecard.
Checked 5 November 2026.
Sources:
- YouTube Kids Help, Important info for parents about YouTube Kids
- YouTube Kids Help, Create a YouTube Kids profile
- YouTube Kids Help, Understand your choices as a family
- TechCrunch, YouTube now has a way for parents to block kids from watching Shorts, 14 January 2026
- Papadamou et al., Disturbed YouTube for Kids, ICWSM 2020
