Family YouTube Viewing Checklist for Clean Watching

The account a child watches on decides most of what they can reach, so start here.

• •Pick YouTube Kids or a supervised account for each child. YouTube Kids is a separate app with a smaller selection and Preschool, Younger and Older settings. Supervised accounts use the main YouTube app and are for kids under 13, or the local age of consent (YouTube's comparison). Our guide to choosing between YouTube Kids and a supervised account goes through the trade-offs.
• •Set the content level to match the child's age, and read what each level means for language. Older kids allows infrequent mild offensive language. Teens allows frequent offensive language. Older teens is nearly everything except 18+ content (content settings).
• •For teenagers, know that supervision is voluntary once they are over 13. This one is a conversation before it is a setting (source).

Settings on YouTube don't always follow the person. Some live in the browser, so a new laptop or a second Chrome profile starts from scratch.

• •Turn on Restricted Mode in each browser and each profile. It works per browser or device, so switching it on in one place does nothing for the others (Restricted Mode help). It hides some videos and never mutes a word. See what Restricted Mode actually hides.
• •Lock Restricted Mode with Family Link where you can. Family Link parents can set it for a child, and the child can't change it, but this applies only when the child isn't eligible for a supervised experience (source). Family Link also controls the content level and YouTube Kids search (Family Link YouTube controls).
• •Turn autoplay off. It is the switch at the bottom of the player. YouTube turns it off by default for users aged 13 to 17, and supervised teens may not be able to change it (autoplay help). With autoplay off, the next video is a choice someone makes instead of something that just starts.
• •Decide whether to pause watch and search history. Family Link lets parents pause it and disable autoplay for a child (source). It is optional, and families differ on whether they want it.

Keep a short note of where you switched each setting on: which browsers, which profiles, which devices. When something gets past you later, the note makes it quick to see whether a setting was missing on that screen or whether it was there and simply didn't catch the video.

Settings narrow the pool. Picking what to watch from that pool is still on you.

• •Preview the most recent uploads from a new channel, not only the most popular ones, which tend to be older. Gaming channels need extra care because so much of it is unscripted. We wrote a short routine for vetting gaming channels.
• •Build an approved list. In YouTube Kids, Approve content yourself limits a child to videos, channels and collections you handpicked, with no search. On a supervised account or a shared browser, a family playlist does a similar job.
• •Check for the CC icon if you plan to rely on a caption-based tool. YouTube shows it only when the video has captions (captions help), and a tool that works from captions can't do anything without them.

An approved list takes an evening to build and saves a lot of arguing afterwards. Let your child suggest additions, and preview each one before it goes on the list.

A family usually watches on a mix of phones, tablets, laptops and a TV. Each tool covers some of those and not others, so it helps to write down which is which.

• •Check who is signed in on each shared screen. Supervised and YouTube Kids settings belong to the child's account or profile. If the living room TV is signed in to a parent's account, none of the child's settings apply there.
• •Give each child their own Chrome profile on a shared computer. Because Restricted Mode is set per profile, a separate profile keeps a child's settings in place when an adult uses the same machine.
• •Know which devices each tool covers. Bleepster, for example, is an independent extension that runs in desktop Chrome. On the TV and phone apps you rely on YouTube's own settings from the sections above. If you want an overview of every option, start with how to mute profanity on YouTube.
• •If you use Bleepster on the family computer, set a Parent PIN so the extension's settings can't be changed casually, and turn on Safe start so playback can wait until analysis is ready. Bleepster reads the video's captions and lowers the tab audio at detected words, with silence or a bleep, and the audio itself is never uploaded. The setup for a profanity filter for family viewing explains both settings. Premium covers one household, up to 5 devices or Chrome profiles, for $4.99 a month or $19.99 once for lifetime access. The Free plan covers 10 new videos.

Something will. YouTube says as much about its own systems: the YouTube Kids help page states that no algorithm is perfect. Plan for the miss ahead of time and it is much less of a scramble.

• •In YouTube Kids, block the video or channel and report it. The YouTube Kids help page describes both options. Blocking is the part that protects your child tomorrow, so do it even if you are not sure the report will change anything.
• •Watch together now and then, especially in the first weeks with a new channel. You hear what your child hears, and you get a feel for the creators they like without having to interrogate anyone later.
• •Talk it through. A calm question about what they heard usually works better than switching the screen off mid-sentence. Agree on house rules, including what a child should do when they hear something they shouldn't.
• •Watch for tools that tell you when they can't help. Bleepster shows a protection status when it can't protect a video, for instance when there are no usable captions. When you see that, pick another video.

A setup that fits an eight-year-old won't fit the same child at eleven. Birthdays that cross an age line, a new phone, a new console with a YouTube app, or a new Chrome profile on the family laptop are all good reasons to go through the list again. Pay particular attention to the content level, since moving a child up one step changes how much offensive language YouTube allows.

It also helps to ask your child what has changed. Kids find new apps and channels before parents do, and a five-minute chat about what they are watching now will tell you which parts of this list need another look. If a setting has started to feel too strict for an older child, loosening one thing on purpose is better than discovering they have found a way around it.

More guides on settings and captions are on the Bleepster blog.