TVKIDS
YouTube has aligned with a group of content creators and distributors in the Youth Digital Wellbeing Initiative, supporting a “unified vision for the development of high-quality, age-appropriate content for young people.”
“The wellbeing of young people on our platform is a top priority at YouTube, and the Youth Digital Wellbeing Initiative builds upon our longstanding efforts,” said Neal Mohan, YouTube CEO. “This includes YouTube Kids and supervised experiences. We also continue to collaborate with third-party experts, including our recent work with the American Psychological Association to create a parents’ guide to navigating quality time spent online.”
Mohan went on to say that YouTube is committed to “positively shaping the online content experiences of young users, not only by promoting healthy and enriching content for youth but also actively limiting the reach of low-quality content. This work includes enabling greater access to content that promotes media literacy and digital citizenship, fosters learning in and outside of the classroom and supports development and wellbeing.”
Alongside YouTube, the initiative is backed by Animaj, Benesse, BouncePatrol, ChuChu TV, CoroCoro Comic, EBS, El Reino Infantil, Japan Football Association, Kedoo, Khan Academy, Leader Entertainment, Mauricio de Sousa Produções, Miraculous Corp, Moonbug, The Pinkfong Company, The Wiggles, TV Cultura and WildBrain.
The idea is to consider the unique developmental needs of kids and teens from the outset of product design and content development to protect and empower a diverse population of youth; set age-appropriate defaults, where applicable, for sexually explicit content and graphic violence; and invest in research-backed resources for families and parents, inclusive of media literacy and digital citizenship.
The initiative will support the development and accessibility of high-quality, age-appropriate content that is “enriching, engaging and inspiring.” There are also plans to enable settings and offer controls that support healthy screen time for youth, point youth toward crisis resources when viewing content that may include the discussion of sensitive mental health topics such as suicide and self-harm and implement content safeguards for youth by limiting exposure to low-quality, potentially harmful content.
