Web Safety NZ New Zealand Internet Safety
Setting ‘Safe’ Mode for YouTube. YouTube is popular with both kids and adults, but some of the content is not quite appropriate for young ones to view. YouTube’s Safety Mode does a great job of filtering out videos that some parents may consider inappropriate for their children. Thankfully, YouTube already does a fairly good job of removing any inappropriate content on the site. But with the millions of videos being uploaded and viewed every day, it can be difficult to cover all their grounds when it comes to safety.
Below is a video guide that you can follow to set it up. However, keep in mind, though setting up YouTube Safety Mode is a simple process, if it’s not done right it can easily be undone.
- First step’s first: Go to the computer that your kids use and visit YouTube.com.
- Log in by clicking the “Sign In” button in the top right corner. You’ll be prompted to log in using your Gmail account information. If you don’t have a Gmail account, creating one is fast, easy and free.
Please note: This should be YOUR Gmail account, not one that you share with your child. Only you should know the password–it’s the key to locking Safety Mode and keeping it that way!
- Once you’ve logged in, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the YouTube homepage and look for a link that says “Safety Mode: Off”. Click the “Off” link.
- Click the “On” radio button and then click “Save and lock safety mode on this browser”. Doing this will ensure that, even if you’re logged out, Safety Mode will stay on.
Another thing to keep in mind: Safety Mode only stays locked on one web browser on that particular computer user account. So, if each of your kids has their own user account make sure you enable Safety Mode for each account and the browser they’ll use on that account. My advice: most parents don’t have the time to activate Safety Mode on a bunch of browsers, so keep one browser on your computer and uninstall the rest.
Content filters are currently not available for the Mobile version of YouTube. Our recommendation is to restrict the application, depending on the age of your child.