$0.00

No products in the cart.

Free shipping on any purchase of 75$ or more!

info@theimum.com

+1 564 224 5901

$0.00

No products in the cart.

YouTube Kids by Google – a Must Have Free App for Families

More articles

Many kids love watching videos on YouTube but for parents it can be a scary place, as there are many videos you would not want your child watching. Even ones that have their favorite subjects matter such as Minecraft can surprise you by including swearing and inappropriate content. The new YouTube Kids app from Google is an attempt to provide a safer more child-friendly environment for kids to watch YouTube videos.

I introduced my 7 year-old son to the app when it first came out and he loves it. It is very easy for a child to navigate and includes features that parents will appreciate. The videos within the app are screened to be child friendly, and if you find any that are not you can report them directly from the app. There are still adverts, but at least they are for child-friendly products such as kids TV shows.

One feature I love (and my son hates!) is that there is a built-in timer feature so the parent can set how long the child is allowed to watch for. If you combine this with guided access then the iPad is effectively disabled at the end of the timed period. The one fault with this is the parental gate that lets you access the timer is too easy. The app says e.g. four, seven, six, three and you have to enter 4763, I would like to see this replaced with a password or passcode that the parent sets.

 YouTube Kids by Google   a Must Have Free App for Families

The app has 6 sections: recommended (based on your previous watching history), shows, music, learning, explore and search.

Shows

The shows sections displays popular kids channels such as Thomas & Friends,  Sesame Street, Peppa Pig, Babar, Reading Rainbow and Disney Shorts. Tapping on any of these channels allows you to browse and select videos from them.

 YouTube Kids by Google   a Must Have Free App for Families

Music

Here kids can explore channels specializing in kid-friendly music videos.

Learning

This is a really cool section that introduces child-friendly educational channels such as PBS KIDS, Incredible Science, the Khan Academy, It’s Okay to be Smart and TedEd. I love this section as it makes it easy for my kids to find videos they enjoy but they are also learning at the same time.

 YouTube Kids by Google   a Must Have Free App for Families

Explore

This includes channels on subjects such as arts, crafts, Lego, kids yoga and cooking, as well as topical news and fun stuff such as cat and puppy videos.

Search

Parents can switch off search in the settings but when it is enabled the child can search for child friendly videos by typing the subject they are looking for or by saying it. My son loves to be able to search for his favorite characters just by saying their name. I’m also having fun with this section finding all the old videos I used to watch as a kid, even though I grew up on an entirely different continent I can easily my old favorites such as Roobarb and Custard, Noah and Nelly, The Clangers and Ivor the Engine – a real trip down memory lane!

I think this app is a must have for any family that lets children watch videos on an iPad or iPhone. The app isn’t perfect, there are some features I would love to see added in future updates- the ability to add your own favorites list of videos and channels, saved searches, a stronger parental gate, ability to download favorites for offline viewing and the ability to create playlists for your children, but that said it is a huge improvement on using the native YouTube app for kids. I love how easy it is for kids to use, the fact that it is filled with child safe videos, it gives children new ideas on creative and educational videos to watch, the timer feature and how easy the search option is to use.

- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest