Being a parent in this digital era isn’t at all easy. Protecting your kid’s innocence when he or she can watch any type of abusive or sexual content by entering a couple of keywords in the YouTube search bar – is very hard.
Personally, I have seen my sister hogging over her kids all the time so that they won’t watch or accidentally see age-inappropriate content on YouTube. But it is a very hard thing to do because you can’t hover over your child all the time especially if you are talking about teenagers. That means you have to find a plan B to protect your children from watching inappropriate content on YouTube. And some of the easy ways to make YouTube learning, not horrifying experience for your kids are –
Block Search
YouTube lets kids search for anything by typing or speaking, but this universal search opens up the door of unwanted video results as well. By disabling the search function, you can reduce the fraction of videos by sending a message to Google. As per The New York Times report, the inappropriate videos are posted by anonymous users in recent months, thus they can’t be easily filtered by YouTube automatically. To turn off search feature –
- Click over the lock icon present on the lower right corner
- Enter your YouTube parental passcode
- Tap over Settings
- On your child’s profile and then on Search Settings toggle
- Just disable search under your kid’s profile
Customize Passcode
To turn off the search, you require a four-digit passcode as shown above. So if you are dealing with a naughty teenager who can read, write and use technology better than you, then you have to customize your YouTube parental passcode. Moreover, keep on changing your passcode frequently so that your kid won’t ever able to access the Settings and tweak with search settings.
Create Playlists
If the YouTube video uploader hasn’t selected the Enable age restrictions or any other user hasn’t reported objections, then YouTube filters won’t do anything for you. So you are gonna take the matter into your own hands. If your kids are young, then you can create personalized videos playlist after carefully watching videos yourself. By clicking on the link shared on the bottom videos, you can add them to your playlist and let your kid watch filtered content.
Get Parental Control App
As your kids grow, they will learn to read and they will try to surpass your selected playlist. At that time to monitor your kid’s YouTube activities, a parental control app is required. To establish a strong YouTube monitor, you can get FamiSafe parental control software that can be operated through the web and app easily. FamiSafe offers triple-layered YouTube monitoring –
- Check – It checks all the videos that your kids have watched on YouTube.
- Block – It can block videos or channels which have potential threats for kids.
- Alert – Connect YouTube account of kids and receive keyword alerts for better protection.
Aware your Child
If you try to block your kid, then he or she is going to find a way to defy you. Additionally, you can only block YouTube videos for your kid’s device – what about other gadgets present in your home or your kid’s friend’s phones. So to fully safeguard your kid, you have to make your kid aware of the consequences of watching inappropriate content and how can they avoid watching such kind of content. If you and your kid have a mutual trust and bonding, then you won’t have to ever worry.
Let go YouTube
If the content policy of YouTube is too much for you, then you can simply block YouTube from the web filters and encourage your kids to watch other kid-friendly video apps. There is plenty of different alternative to YouTube are available online like SprogTube that creates safe YouTube videos for kids. So when you can’t control YouTube, then leaving it behind will be a great solution.
So if you are tired of behaving like an NSA around your kids, then using smart ways to beat technology is a great solution. Parents, you should not forget that YouTube is full of educational and engaging video content for kids as well, you just have to find a way to show that safely to your kids.
