YouTube Makes Major Change to Content for Kids

YouTube is changing the way content directed towards children is handled on the platform, the company announced this week. Over the course of the next four months, YouTube will limit data collection on videos directed at kids and will “stop serving personalized ads” for that type of content. Other measures YouTube will pursue include investing more into YouTube Kids, the part of YouTube meant for those under the age of 13, while also working with content creators who make videos directed at that age group.

A post on the YouTube blog coupled with a Twitter thread highlighting the main changes went over everything that’ll be different when four months have passed. The YouTube team reiterated that they’ve expressed the site is intended for those over the age of 13 while acknowledging that unsupervised viewing of content by children has increased. Topping the list of changes is the removal of personalized ads and the limiting of data collected from kids who watch content directed at them.

“Starting in about four months, we will treat data from anyone watching children’s content on YouTube as coming from a child, regardless of the age of the user,” YouTube’s post said. “This means that we will limit data collection and use on videos made for kids only to what is needed to support the operation of the service. We will also stop serving personalized ads on this content entirely, and some features will no longer be available on this type of content, like comments and notifications.”

Social features previously available for videos directed at kids will also be disabled, and those who make content for children will have to identify their videos accordingly.

YouTube’s post also referenced “concerns raised by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General.” Those concerns included an alleged violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and a $170 million payment from Google, the owner of YouTube, to settle the charges. The charges claimed that Google was allegedly collecting data on kids watching content for children on YouTube.

More information on YouTube’s approach to content geared towards children is said to be shared in the coming months as the team shares details on how it’s “rethinking our overall approach to kids and families, including a dedicated kids experience on YouTube.”