Australian parents worried their kids are stumbling across inappropriate content on YouTube, or just watching entirely too many Justin Bieber videos, now have a solution.
The YouTube Kids app launched in Australia this week for iOS and Android devices. Serving up content that has been pre-screened and deemed age-appropriate for little ones, the app is now available for free download from Google Play or the Apple App Store.
Kicking off in the U.S. in February, the app has been downloaded more than 10 million times globally, Malik Ducard, global head of family and learning at YouTube, said in a statement. All content on the app is grouped into four categories, “Shows,” “Music,” “Learning,” and “Explore,” and franchise material is mixed with kid-friendly videos made by YouTube’s own content creators.
Australia has its own top-notch material for kids, and luckily, YouTube Kids will let you support it. From ABC Kids, it has Play School, Jemima’s Big Adventure, and Giggle and Hoot. In addition, it will host clips from the astronomically popular Australian sisters, Charli and Ashlee, of theCharli’s Crafty Kitchen YouTube cooking channel, as well as Bounce Patrol and Hi-5 TV.
The platform will include ads, a Google spokesperson confirmed to Mashable Australia. However, they are meant to be family-friendly as Mashable noted in its original review of the app in the U.S., and will not include click-through links.
While it has plenty of parental controls built-in so the adults can decide exactly what their children watch, the app has also been designed with the under-fives in mind. Featuring large icons and voice search, your four-year-old should find it easy to navigate — though, let’s be real, they’re probably already better at using the Internet than you.
The app even lets parents outsource being the bad cop — it comes with a timer that can automatically limit a kid’s screen time.
