YouTube has strict guidelines for explicit content and has always let people control what recommendations they get especially their kids.
In December 2014, Google started revamping its products (specifically, Youtube and Search) by keeping kids in mind.
Taking further steps, Google launched YouTube for Kids in early 2015 – a version of YouTube having kids friendly content and built specifically for kids. YouTube kids have features like turning on/off the search and ‘watch it again’ suggestions.
Now Google is all set to take these parental controls beyond just ‘restricted mode’. A recent patent filed by Google hints a new type of parental controls for users that will allow them to fine tune what kind of video recommendations their kids get. Here’s a screenshot from the patent itself that shows this in action:
As you can see, you’ll be able to create a profile for your kids and adjust different settings for each of them. The above screenshot also reveals that you’ll be able to set different settings for different locations and time of a day. Impressive right?
The patent also mentions rating content based on age. For example, you’ll be served with an option to rate a video for a particular age group. This will help YouTube accurately categorize content for different age groups and further making parental controls much effective in the long run.
You’ll also be able to rate the videos that your kids watched earlier. Here’s an image from the patent of the rating system in action:
(Alexander is the name of kid :p)
Simply put, the new parental controls will enable you to tailor made YouTube content for your growing champ.
Besides that feature, YouTube is going to release another feature – a trendsetter which will let a viewer know that you were among the first few who watched that viral video.