On Monday, February 22, 2015, Google came up with a YouTube app for kids for iOS and Android devices. The app is called YouTube Kids and it is free to use. It blocks all of the videos on the site that are not kid-friendly, and only allow users to watch education videos, kid-friendly music, and cartoons.
I think that this was a great app idea. Good job, Google! This app will help parents feel safe that their children are not stumbling on inappropriate content. Childhood innocence is very important to a lot of people. I think that one of a parent's biggest fears is finding out that his or her child is learning something that they should not be learning at that time. I remember a few months back, some of my younger cousins were watching videos that they should not have been watching. It wasn't pornography or anything like that, but there were a few adult jokes in the video. With this new app, parents won't be having issues like that anymore.
The app is well designed. It looks a lot like the regular YouTube app with a few tweaks to make it look more childlike. The app has four categories for its videos: Shows, Music, Learning and Explore. The app also has an icon shaped like a lock on its lower-right corner. When pressed, the icon leads to a prompt for a pass code to be entered. Once the correct pass code is entered, the parental controls are displayed. They give parents more options on how the app behaves. They can set a timer on the app so that it displays a message after a set amount of time and then closes.
Overall, this was a great idea on Google's part. So far, the few kids that have seen the app love it. Good Guy Google, helping to maintain childhood innocence.
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/get-started-with-youtube-kids/
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