What is YouTube defined?

Users of YouTube may view, like, share, comment on, and contribute their own videos to the website. Mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and PCs may all be used to access the video service.

What Are YouTube's Primary Purposes?

• Users may look up and see videos.
• Make your own YouTube channel.
• movie clips to your channel
• Share, like, and comment on other YouTube videos
• Users can follow and subscribe to other YouTube users and channels.
• To arrange videos and combine them together, make playlists.

What Makes Teens Enjoy YouTube?

YouTube is a service that is available for free, and it may be a terrific place for teenagers to find interest. A lot of young people use YouTube to view music videos, comedy programs, tutorials, recipes, and how-to videos. Teenagers also use the video-sharing platform to subscribe to other YouTubers and popular personalities, as well as to follow their favorite vloggers (video bloggers).

Age Limitations

Users must be 18 years of age or older with parental approval to create a YouTube account. Update: Ireland has raised the Digital Age of Consent to 16 years old following the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This indicates that in Ireland, minors under the age of 16 are not permitted to use this platform.

To use the website or watch videos, users do not need to sign in. However, a free download of the YouTube kids version is now offered. For kids ages 3 to 8, YouTube Kids was created to make it simpler for both kids and parents to access material they're interested in. For more information about the YouTube Kids app, go here.

What Risks Exist?

Although YouTube is a fantastic resource for learning, enjoyment, and discovery, there are several things that parents and teenagers should be aware of before utilizing the service.

Unsuitable Content

Even though YouTube has more than a billion subscribers and 300 hours of video are posted every minute, not all of it is suitable for kids.

However, you can reduce the likelihood that your child may come into contact with the material that isn't necessarily suitable for them. You or your child can report a video to YouTube if you or they observe something objectionable. Visit Google.com/YouTube for additional information on how to report offensive content.

Online bullying

Sadly, using the site can lead to harassment and rude remarks, especially when using the comments feature (YouTube users can comment on other users' videos). It could be a good idea to suggest that your child block comments on their own profile or channel if they have a YouTube channel. This reduces the possibility of reading unfavorable comments and is quite simple to do through settings. You may complain and ban people if your youngster is being harassed on YouTube.

Advice for Protecting Your Child on YouTube

1. Taking control of privacy settings

When a user uploads a video to YouTube, the video's visibility settings are automatically set to public, allowing anybody to view it. You should talk about the appropriate settings to utilize if your child uploads videos to YouTube based on their age. You may quickly change a video's privacy setting to "unlisted" (published on YouTube but cannot be found without a direct link to the video).

Google Circles may be used to invite users to watch your videos. Please be aware that sharing a private video with other users requires linking your channel to Google+. For instructions on how to link a YouTube channel to a Google+ profile, go here.

2. Establish parental controls

On YouTube, parents should enable age limits and parental settings. Learn how to configure parental controls.

3. Make YouTube comments inactive

You may completely disable comments on YouTube videos, or viewers can choose to approve each remark before it is broadcast, which can reduce the likelihood of encountering cyberbullying. Learn how to turn off comments.

4. Switch to safety mode

Users of YouTube can block adult content by using the Safety mode setting. It is an "opt-in" setting, so you must turn it on before it becomes active. The setting limits search results to exclude adult or age-restricted videos, meaning that such content will not appear in related video searches, playlists, shows, or movie sections. We advise parents of small children to enable this function even though no filtering mechanism is 100% accurate.

Useful Links: YouTube Family Link gives you access to YouTube Kids options, including the content level you desire for your kid and whether you want them to utilize the search bar. To learn more, go to: https://families.google.com/familylink/

Supervised Experiences on YouTube were introduced in 2021 by YouTube. This function is for parents who wish to let their kids go from YouTube Kids to the main YouTube site under their supervision. The functionality will let parents select one of three YouTube content settings using a Supervised Google Account.

Explore: This setting will provide a wide selection of videos typically appropriate for viewers aged 9+, including vlogs, tutorials, gaming videos, music clips, news, educational content, and more, for kids eager to move on from YouTube Kids and explore content on YouTube.

Explore More: This setting will have a broader selection of videos and live streams in the same categories as "Explore," with content that is typically appropriate for viewers ages 13 and up.

The majority of YouTube: This choice will include practically all videos on YouTube, except for those with age restrictions and sensitive content that might only be suitable for older adolescents.