YouTube Kids will get its own website, new content filters this week

The Google subsidiary announced that it’s releasing an official YouTube Kids website in a blog post-Tuesday.

In the past, the YouTube Kids platform was only available via a mobile app that wasn’t very popular, compared to the full-access version of the website.

“We built YouTube Kids to create a safer environment for kids to explore their interests and curiosity while giving parents the tools to customize the experience for their kids. We continue to improve the app based on feedback from parents and experts, and have two updates to share today!” Google said in a statement on its website.

Google also announced that YouTube is getting new filters that allow parents to manually control which content is deemed age-appropriate by choosing Approved Content Only. That way, kids are only able to watch videos hand-picked by their parents.

The new YouTube Kids website will filter content into three age categories: Preschool, Younger (ages 5-7) and Older (ages 8-12). Still, some adult content could slip through the cracks, the video streaming platform warns.

“Our systems work hard to exclude content not suitable for each of these age categories, but not all videos have been manually reviewed. If you find something inappropriate that we missed, you can block it or flag it for fast review,” a Google employee from the YouTube team said in the blog post.

Google makes this move after the parent company faced controversy over YouTube’s collecting of children’s data and using it to targeted ads.

Child advocacy groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in 2018, urging federal officials to investigate Google citing violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

Google reportedly reached a multimillion-dollar settlement over the case with the FTC in July.