Is YouTube Kids Safe?

The short answer: YouTube Kids is the safer cousin of regular YouTube, and for little ones it's a reasonable yes — but only once you've changed one setting. On the default settings the content pool is still enormous and clickbait creeps in. Flip it to "Approved content only" and you go from "mostly fine" to "I actually know what they're watching."

What YouTube Kids is

YouTube Kids is a completely separate app from the main one. You set it up, you control it, and the content is meant for children. You can create a profile for each child and choose an age level: Preschool (around 4 and under), Younger (5–8) or Older (9–12). It's a genuinely better starting point than handing a five-year-old the full YouTube — which is a 13+ product anyway, and in a growing number of places (Australia among them) under-16s can't hold a regular account at all.

Where it can go wrong

The catch is that the filtering is done by computers, not people. YouTube Kids screens out most unsuitable content automatically, but "most" isn't "all" — videos that look child-friendly in the thumbnail but aren't have made it through before, and the algorithm still nudges kids toward "watch one more." There are ads and commercial content too, and a determined child can sometimes find their way to the grown-up app through a link.

The setting that actually locks it down

If you do one thing, do this. In the app, go to your child's profile and turn on "Approved content only." In that mode your child can only watch the channels, videos and collections you've personally added with the + button — and Search is switched off entirely. It's more work for you (you're curating their library), but it's the difference between hoping the filter holds and knowing exactly what's available.

If "Approved content only" feels too tight for an older child, the next best thing is to turn Search off so they're limited to recommended content rather than typing in whatever they like. Either way, keep it on a screen in a shared space, not solo in a bedroom.

How we use it

For the little one, we run Approved content only with a short list of channels we actually like, the timer on, and the iPad in the kitchen. It removes the "what on earth is this video" moments almost entirely, and it's easy to add a new channel when he asks.

The bottom line: YouTube Kids is a yes for younger children — but don't trust the defaults. "Approved content only" is the setting that turns it from a curated-ish firehose into a small, safe library you chose.