Enhancing online safety for children, YouTube is set to improve kids’ viewing experience by introducing a “read-only” mode for comments in its supervised experiences. This development targets a safer and more controlled engagement with the platform for the younger audience. The feature is expected to be introduced within the coming weeks.
This major update is part of YouTube’s ongoing efforts to refine parental controls, particularly after the platform faced pressure to ramp up protections for minors back in 2021. In the past, comments were entirely disabled for kid profiles, prohibiting children from both reading and commenting. Recognizing the need for an age-appropriate framework, YouTube is now offering a modified commenting feature.
The “read-only” mode for comments will be applicable to two specific content settings designed for children under parental guidance: “Explore More” for viewers 13 and up, and “Most of YouTube” for older kids. The latter excludes adult-only age-restricted videos. In these settings, children will be able to read comments but not respond to them, and live chat functionality will be disabled.
For parents desiring to entirely eliminate comment exposure, the option to select the “Explore” setting is available. This setting, suitable for viewers aged 9 and over, offers a more sheltered entry point into the broader YouTube landscape after transitioning from the YouTube Kids app.
Parents retain control over their child’s YouTube account, with the ability to adjust settings via YouTube parent settings or through Google’s Family Link parental controls app. They can also monitor their child’s video history through the “My Activity” feature on the child’s device.
It’s important to note that the YouTube settings will only apply to direct use of the platform. Content from YouTube embedded on third-party websites will not adhere to these restrictions.
The broader landscape of children’s online safety is seeing increasing legislative attention. The “Kids Online Safety Act” is pushing for stringent parental control requirements from digital platforms, while “COPPA 2.0” seeks to solidify privacy and data protection laws, specifically focused on prohibiting targeted advertising toward children and teenagers.
YouTube is preempting regulatory moves by proactively integrating these safety measures. Following the roll-out of parental controls in 2021, YouTube has continued to iterate on its safety protocols, with November 2023 seeing updates to reduce repeated viewing of certain topics and enhancements to the platform’s reminder features to promote healthier viewing habits.
Despite the detailed email notifications sent to parents, YouTube has not formally announced these read-only comment changes on its blog. Further clarification on this feature remains awaited.
