If you have children or minors in your care and a Smart TV, then you should install YouTube Kids. This is the platform’s proposal so that any child and his family always enjoy fun and age-appropriate content, no matter what it is. So, we tell you how to use YouTube Kids on your television.
What is YouTube Kids
Created virtually from scratch and with an interface easy to use by children of any age, YouTube Kids is the company’s response to the numerous criticisms suffered by the content hosted by YouTube. And it is completely understandable, because although the online video platform can be a wonderful place, it can also easily become the opposite.
YouTube Kids solves it with a previous process in which the child’s parents configure a profile for them. To do so, they only have to visit this link and first choose one of the three sections that they offer according to age:
- Preschool children, up to 4 years old
- Young children, 5-7 years
- Older children, between 8 and 12 years old
By selecting each of these sections, you will not only receive specific suggestions, but your searches will also be limited to content suitable for children under the maximum age of each option.
At the beginning, the little ones may shock a little. Especially if they are used to seeing drawings, for example, for those over 7 years old, although they have not yet complied with them. So there it is the father, mother or guardian who should assess and choose one profile or another according to the child’s own maturity and what they think is appropriate.
This is not the only initial configuration, you must also decide whether to allow the search engine or not, so that the only content they see is that offered from accounts and channels verified by YouTube itself and its team responsible for the children’s version.
Parental controls
Being an application for minors, along with the initial options, YouTube Kids also offers parental controls with which you can set time-of-use limits. In addition to such a timer, you can also block content, limit access to only approved content, disable search, and clear or pause history.
All these options are available after accessing the configuration menu that appears when you click on the padlock icon and solve a simple mathematical operation. Rest assured, if your child already knows how to solve these questions, you can create a custom password to access the parental settings.
Any option you modify can always be changed again according to the needs of the moment or any other reason. So, as you can see, keeping control of what they see is very easy. Whether filtering by age or even by channels.
How to watch YouTube Kids on TV
You can see YouTube Kids on your computer just by accessing the youtubekids.com website , also from mobile devices such as Android phones and tablets or Apple‘s iPhone and iPad. But they are not the only devices, you can also access the platform from a smart tv.
YouTube Kids is available for some select Smart TV models. In all of them the standard of quality, options and use is identical to that of mobile applications, but you must first know which television you can or cannot access the service on. So we go in parts:
- On LG TVs with webOS from 215 to 2017 you can download the application. through the LG Content Store
- For Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray players from 2013 onwards you only have to go to the Samsung App Store to download the application
- In other televisions, such as some Sony models, you will have to update their pacer firmware if it allows access to the platform or not.
- If you use a television with Android TV , all you have to do is download the application from here for Android
- Finally, if what you have connected to the TV to watch YouTube is an Apple TV (4th and 5th generation), there is also a specific app for tvOS. Use the application search engine of the Apple set top box
How is the YouTube Kids application
The YouTube Kids application is the same on each and every one of these platforms on which it is available. A very simple interface where there is a view with a search box and five icons below to access recommended content, programs, explore, music and learn.
At the bottom there is a grid with thumbnails of the recommended content for each section. Clicking on each of these videos expands and a column appears on the right with other videos in case you want to change and stop watching.
As you can see, the use of YouTube Kids on a Smart TV is as simple as on any other compatible device and much more than the traditional app. If you have little ones at home, it is a better option than letting them freely explore YouTube . Especially if you are busy and you can not pay attention to control what they see or not.
