YouTube, the largest video-sharing service, is launching a new kid-friendly app called YouTube Kids on Monday February 23. YouTube Kids will be available for free on Android when it launches. AGoogle GOOGL -0.87% spokesperson also confirmed that the YouTube Kids app will be expanded to other platforms later on.
YouTube will curate kid-friendly content provided by shows such as Sesame Street, TuTiTuTV, Reading Rainbow, Thomas The Tank Engine, Yo Gabba Gabba, Talking Tom, National Geographic Kids, Jim Henson TV, Pocoyo and Dreamworks TV. LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow fame will create an exclusive original series on YouTube Kids called uTech, which will focus on next generation technologies.
YouTube has been planning YouTube Kids for months now. The app is being put together by YouTube’s in-house engineers and several third-party organizations like Common Sense Media. YouTube Kids will have a timer that is controllable by parents to shut down the app after a certain amount of time.
To prevent kids from seeing profanity, comments have been disabled.
entertainment channels, it’s more like 200%.”
Parents that want to limit the screen time can control the settings with a password. After the timer runs out, the app will turn off and request the password to be started again. The YouTube Kids app supports voice commands since many young children cannot type yet.
YouTube is not the only video service that launched a child-friendly service recently. Last month,Twitter TWTR +0.84% launched the Vine Kids app and has received positive feedback since then. YouTube Kids will be announced by YouTube’s head of global family and learning Malik Ducard during a keynote at the Kidscreen Summit in Miami on Monday.
Do you plan to download the YouTube Kids app next week? Let us know in the comments section below!
In the user interface above, you will notice that there are five large navigational icons at the top. When you tap on the TV icon, it will display the kid-friendly shows. Tapping on the radio icon will let users play music videos for popular kids songs and the light bulb icon is for educational programs. The binoculars icon indicates an “explore” feature, which contains the top featured videos. And the magnifying glass icon lets you search for all of the videos in YouTube Kids. Kids will be able to search for topics that range from animals to volcanoes. If a child writes a curse word in the search engine, then a message will pop up that says “Try something else.”
“Parents were constantly asking us, can you make YouTube a better place for our kids,” said Shimrit Ben-Yair, a group product manager at Google that oversees YouTube, Google+ and Google Docs via USA Today. “(Year over year) we’ve seen 50% growth in viewing time on YouTube, but for our family entertainment channels, it’s more like 200%.”
