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Youtube Android IOS

YouTube Kids Launches On Android and iOS 81

Posted by samzenpus from the won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-children? dept.
An anonymous reader writes As expected, YouTube today launched YouTube Kids for Android and iOS, described as a "family-friendly destination" and "the first Google product built from the ground up with little ones in mind." You can download the new app for free, available only in the U.S., directly from Google Play and Apple's App Store. The app's main selling point is that it only has content deemed appropriate for kids. In other words, the pitch to parents is very simple: This app will ensure that your kids can watch videos posted online without stumbling on clips you wouldn't want them to see.
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YouTube Kids Launches On Android and iOS More

YouTube Kids Launches On Android and iOS

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  • Hmmm ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by jc42 ( 318812 ) on Monday February 23, 2015 @01:34PM (#49112961) Homepage Journal

    This app will ensure that your kids can watch videos posted online without stumbling on clips you wouldn't want them to see.

    Does this include ads?

    • Of course - kid friendly ones! ;)

      • Kid-friendly ads (Score:5, Informative)

        by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepples.gmail@com> on Monday February 23, 2015 @01:45PM (#49113059) Homepage Journal

        You are correct. The article in The Guardian [theguardian.com] states: "The app will be free and funded by advertising, although YouTube says it will be carefully screening ads to ensure they are appropriate for children." If there were no ads, then there would probably be no partner or claimed videos. This would have cut out a lot of YouTube.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

      Of course not. TFS is inaccurate, the threshold is what you are willing to tolerate to distract the little buggers for five minutes so you can have some peace. Commercial children's TV channels suggest adults will tolerate advertising to their kids if it keeps them occupied.

  • Hopefully better than SafeSearch... (Score:3)

    by wikthemighty ( 524325 ) on Monday February 23, 2015 @01:41PM (#49113037)
    My 6 year old daughter does pretty good with YouTube, but there have been plenty of incidents like going from Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse to kids playing "Bobbie & Ricky" where Ricky has been kidnapped and tied up "because that's my kind of love!" which crosses the border a bit. I'll definitely be giving this app a shot.
    • A few years ago when my son was a toddler, he really loved Thomas the Train. He loved watching Thomas the Train clips from the show, people opening new toy packages, etc. One day I heard curse words coming from the iPhone. I grabbed the phone and it was a video of kids filming their own Thomas show with their toys and they were swearing at each other like sailors. That started the "No YouTube Rule" which has been in effect for several years. :)

      • Thomas the Train? wth? I thought it was Thomas the Tank Engine. *checks* Yeah, according to wikipedia, Thomas the Tank Engine is the name.

        Is this another one of those Where's Wally vs Where's Waldo things? o_O

        • Thomas the Train? wth? I thought it was Thomas the Tank Engine. *checks* Yeah, according to wikipedia, Thomas the Tank Engine is the name.

          Is this another one of those Where's Wally vs Where's Waldo things? o_O

          Thomas the Tank Engine is the illegitimate offspring of Ivor the Engine. [wikipedia.org]

        • I will believe you on that. I did learn that there's only so many hours of animated trains that you can watch as an adult before your brain starts to melt. I am glad I have excised the knowledge as much as I already have! :)

  • How about implementing parental controls on Android instead? I can't give my kid an Android phone or tablet, because it's not possible to disable Youtube on it, and Youtube is full of garbage.

    • I'd suggest looking into user profiles, which you can use for your kids and hand select the apps you want them to be able to use (like YouTube Kids: YES, YouTube: NO). I'm guessing you'd want Chrome/Browser disabled also. If you think Youtube is full of garbage, you should check out this whole internet thing. I think this only works for Android Tablets, though (as of 4.2 I think). They added user accounts for 5.0 for phone, but not the limited profiles part.

    • There are many free apps that do that kind of thing.

      Also if you have a non-nexus Samsung, or a non-nexus LG device, that are at least one year old, you have that functionality that is already baked into their customized ROM. The only thing is that LG doesn't call their functionality parental control, they call it 'Guest mode' instead which is actually really good because the way it's triggered, through a different unlock pattern or a different unlock pin, your guest has actually no idea he's using 'Guest m

    • While I agree that native parental controls would be great, and as a parent I was also surprised they weren't there, there are apps that you can use to lock down devices quite easily to limit what your kids can access.

      Kids Place is a good one:
      https://play.google.com/store/... [google.com]

      The bigger problem is no end of "free" games stuffed full of ads that kids accidentally click all the time. IMO Google needs a policy that says if you are marketing to kids under a certain age you may not have certain types of ads (or a

    • Never mind parental controls, how about user controls over app permissions? (ie. putting the user and their privacy/security first.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by iamacat ( 583406 )

      That's been part of Android for years. Here is one article [ausdroid.net] describing what needs to be done.

  • to grow up on media consumption devices in their hands. That's gonna be some socially inept generations coming up.

    • Yeah but that's gonna be the norm at the time.
      Think of it this way: when I grew up, everyone was playing ball and running around while I was reading serous books and tinkering with science. I was the weirdo. When my kid will grow up, everyone will live inside their mobile device or VR and my kid will want to play ball and run around. He's gonna be the weirdo.
      Normal kids are not what we think normal is or should be.

      With that being said, my kid thoroughly enjoys playing golf and memory match on his laptop as

  • As with so many "kid friendly" things, I have to wonder what the threshold is for varying types of content and who decides it's appropriate.

    If it's like anything else, what they block and, more importantly, what they show is probably motivated more by religiousness and/or political correctness than by an honest assessment of what's appropriate for kids. I'm sure they'll block plenty of things that are just fine for kids while exposing them to all kinds of stuff they probably shouldn't be exposed to. But I

    • Not only that but there are differing ages (and social/emotional ages) that will vary what is appropriate. If my 11 year old wants to view a video, it might be appropriate for him, but it might not be appropriate for my 7 year old. Furthermore, my 7 year old might be able to watch something that wouldn't be good for a 5 year old to view.

      My ideal method of YouTube parental controls would be parentally set white lists. I would be to say that Channel X is allowed for this child, Channel Y is allowed for bot

      • That's all well and good but there's far too many parents out there who won't put forth the effort to be involved in parenting their kids. They just want someone to hand them a "kid safe" thing so they can feel better about themselves while they plug their kid in and don't have to deal with it any more. Making a "kid safe" Youtube probably won't actually be kid safe and it certainly won't motivate parents to be more involved in keeping track of what their kids watch. It simply fails to solve the problem.

        • True. In my case, I want to introduce my kids to YouTube gradually. Start with a selection of video sources that I know are appropriate. Then, slowly expand the offerings while discussing how that video that seems to feature that cartoon character they love is probably not really appropriate since the title is "Bugs Bunny F****s Elmer Fudd" and thus should be avoided. However, my only options at this point are a) block all of YouTube (works in the short term but eventually they will have access away fro

      • The app is clearly for little kids under 5-6. The "security" lock to keep kids out of the settings is a simple 4 digit pin that is shown on screen but only in words. It literally says "Enter three, five, eight, four". If your kids can read then this isn't the app for them.

  • Is the plan to replace YouTube for Education with this? YTE never quite worked right, and the filtering YT offers itself blocks content randomly, almost laughable sometimes at what it deems objectionable.

  • Gosh darnit! (Score:3)

    by ArcadeMan ( 2766669 ) on Monday February 23, 2015 @02:36PM (#49113493)

    Won't somebody think of the chil... oh wait.

  • And so the countdown to a headline here that contains both the terms "YouTube Kids" and "4chan" begins.

    It'll be a short one.

  • Very rudimentary (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Psychopath ( 18031 ) on Monday February 23, 2015 @03:34PM (#49113977) Homepage

    The parent can't even set their own PIN code. For security they pick four random numbers that change every time. Then they just ask you to punch in the numerals for something like "one eight seven four" and you put in "1874". Unless your kid is really young or really dumb, there's no point.

  • 5 and under (Score:3)

    by fulldecent ( 598482 ) on Monday February 23, 2015 @04:31PM (#49114481) Homepage

    On iOS, this app is labeled for "kids 5 and under". ... so after 5 it's just rickrolling, goatse and downhill from there?

  • Let me grab some popcorn so I can watch all the people who don't have kids tell the rest of us parents how we should be doing it. Haha

    Anyway, we don't have TV in our house so I let my kid watch a bit of Youtube now and then. She gets maybe two hours a week, maybe more. The frustrating thing has always been the "Youtube Wormhole" where any number of various suggested videos will pop up, and clicking through them can lead to you some odd places, as others have mentioned. It will be nice to know that there

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ruir ( 2709173 )
      Dont get me started on ads. I already pretty much filter them quite well with osx, and given current PHB and repressive changes in law that seriously affect my right to privacy. I might as well go full tor and try to get around ads at router/firewall level, including youtube. About the contents, I make an effort to turn it to more sane, but it is not easy.

      • Dont get me started on ads. I already pretty much filter them quite well with osx, and given current PHB and repressive changes in law that seriously affect my right to privacy. I might as well go full tor and try to get around ads at router/firewall level, including youtube. About the contents, I make an effort to turn it to more sane, but it is not easy.

        If you really don't want to watch ads, try visiting non advertising funded sites. There's no moral or legal requirement to watch YouTube (or read slashdot).

        Just a thought.

  • My profile is already quite "poluted" with kids stuff...my main gripe about youtube are the ads, my kid already knows how to bypass them. My kindgmon for a youtube app that does not show ads!... In my Macs filters cut them out, however not as pratical for the kid as the iPad.

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