YouTube Kids: Everything you need to know about Google’s new app.

YouTube Kids: Everything you need to know about the new app. | Dearest Geeks of EarthI have a torrid love/hate relationship with YouTube. Mainly because it’s great for adults-only video sharing, yet not so great when it comes to helping parents keep their kids from seeing things they shouldn’t.

And with millions of families the world over watching bazillions of videos on the platform daily, it’s about time YouTube introduced its first-ever kids app.

Called YouTube Kids, its the first Google product built with littles in mind, making it safer and easier for them to find videos on the topics they want to explore.

Here’s everything you need to know:

PLAYFUL DESIGN
Larger images, bold icons, a brighter interface and built-in voice search – it’s all part of the all-new, kid-friendly design, making it simple for kids (even those who can’t spell or type yet) and their tiny fingers to navigate the app on their own.

FAMILY-FOCUSED CONTENT
Videos are narrowed to focus on content that is appropriate for the whole family, and fall into four categories: Shows, Music, Learning and Explore. There’s truly something for everyone – think DIY crafts, math tutorials, Minecraft and Jim Henson TV; as well as new series from National Geographic Kids and Reading Rainbow. We hear there are more train videos than even you can count too. That being said, the content is still coming from YouTube, so some videos feature kid-targeted ads.

PARENTAL CONTROLS
A wealth of options helps parents decide how their kids can use the app, including the ability to set viewing limits with a timer, sound settings to turn off background music and sound effects; search settings that can limit access to just pre-selected videos available on the home screen; and a space for product feedback to help developers improve the app over time.

YouTube Kids is available for free starting today for iOS and Android, and will soon be available for Kurio and Nabi.

  3 comments for “YouTube Kids: Everything you need to know about Google’s new app.

  1. Tamara @ We3Travel
    02/23/2015 at 5:52 PM

    Cool! I’ll have to check it out. It would be nice if you could select an age range. I have a tween and I’d love for her to be able to access clean videos that encourage her stem interests and safe animal videos, but still want a protected area but not all cartoons and little kids stuff either. Right now I have to approve what channels she subscribes to and what she can search for.

  2. Leticia Barr
    02/23/2015 at 9:13 PM

    Finally a channel for kids on YouTube! So excited about this announcement and what it means for the youngest content consumers!

  3. Emily
    02/24/2015 at 2:23 PM

    this is awesome. I just showed my 4 year old the app and we are excited to see what YouTube has in store for kids.

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