YouTube has unveiled new parental controls that allow parents to limit or completely blockthe amount of time teenagers spend scrolling through its short-form video feature, Shorts.
The update, announced on Wednesday, is part of a broader push by the platform to strengthen protections for younger users amid rising scrutiny from parents, child safety advocates, and lawmakers.
Parents supervising a teen’s account can now set daily time limits for Shorts, ranging from two hours down to zero minutes. According to YouTube, the feature is designed to give families flexibility for example, blocking Shorts during homework time while allowing limited access during travel or downtime.
Concerns over endless short-video feeds have grown in recent years, with critics arguing that such features can encourage addictive behavior, particularly among young users.
In addition to Shorts limits, parents will be able to set custom bedtime reminders and “take a break” alerts for their children. While YouTube already applies similar reminders by default for users under 18, the new controls give parents greater customization.
The platform is also simplifying the process for creating supervised teen accounts and making it easier to switch between teen and adult profiles on shared devices.
YouTube said it will further refine the content recommended to teen users, prioritizing videos that promote curiosity, life skills, inspiration, and credible information that supports well-being. Teens will continue to be restricted from repeatedly viewing content that could lead to harmful rabbit holes, such as videos that idealize unhealthy body standards.
The changes follow YouTube’s announcement last year that it would use artificial intelligence to estimate users’ ages and automatically apply under-18 protections when teens are suspected of misrepresenting their age. Other platforms, including Instagram, ChatGPT, and Character.AI, have also recently expanded parental controls and youth safety measures.
The announcement comes amid renewed attention on Google, YouTube’s parent company, after a viral LinkedIn post by child safety advocate Melissa McKay showed alerts sent to her nearly 13-year-old son suggesting he could soon remove parental supervision from his account.
In response, Google said it has updated its policy to require parental approval before users aged 13 and older can remove supervision. Google said the move is intended to ensure safeguards remain in place until both parents and teens agree they are ready.
