YouTube’s comments section has historically had one bad reputation, but an upcoming change could prevent kids from entering the comment pit. In an email to parents supervising a child’s account, the company announced the introduction of a “read-only” comments option to their child’s supervised YouTube experience.
The feature will roll out in the “coming weeks,” YouTube says.
Image Credits: YouTube
The change is one of the biggest tweaks to YouTube’s parental control features since it introduced increased protections for minors in 2021 following pressure from lawmakers.
Previously, comments were completely disabled – meaning that both reading and commenting were unavailable to children. However, YouTube said at the time that it would work with parents and experts to add comments through an age-appropriate approach for older kids in the future.
The new addition applies to two of the three content settings available to parents who want to shape a friendlier YouTube experience for their child: “Explore more” and “More from YouTube.”
The former lets kids explore videos with content ratings for viewers 13 and older, while “Most of YouTube” gives older kids access to most of YouTube’s content except videos that are specifically restricted age for adults only.
By default, children will be able to read, but not write, comments in both of these content settings features. Live chat will also be disabled.
Meanwhile, parents who want to turn off comments entirely can switch their child to the “Explore” setting, which is aimed at viewers ages 9 and up. (This option is generally the first step into the main YouTube experience, after using the dedicated YouTube Kids app as a younger child.)
Parents can view and change their child’s settings from parental settings on YouTube or via Google Family Link parental control app, YouTube notes. They can also see their child’s history on the child’s device under the My activity composition.
The company adds that the YouTube settings parents choose for their child won’t apply when the child isn’t using the YouTube website or app directly — such as when viewing embedded YouTube content on a third-party website.
Congress has been pushing tech companies for years to do more to protect children from the negative effects of their services, but has been slow to codify their demands into new laws. More recently, however, the Children’s Internet Safety Act has come into force, requiring stronger parental controls from platform makers. The bill has bipartisan support, as is COPPA 2.0 (Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act), which focuses on increased data protection, privacy and banning targeted advertising to children and teens.
YouTube is ahead of the required changes to its parental control platform by applying the new safeguards by default.
Following the launch of parental controls in 2021, YouTube rolled out a handful of product updates to make YouTube safer for teens in November 2023. This included restrictions on repeat viewing of certain content, as well as revamped “take a break” reminders and “ bedtime”. including.
While the email details the changes to parents, the company has not made a public announcement on her blog about read-only comments so far. Requests for comment have not been returned.
Updated 4/10/24 4:30 PM and with a clearer title
