Starting Monday, February 23, YouTube will offer a mobile app especially for younger viewers called, logically enough, YouTube Kids. The app will initially be available only for Android devices, and only in the U.S.
Set to be launched during the Kidscreen Summit, a children’s entertainment industry event being held in Miami, YouTube Kids will offer an experience designed specifically for younger video viewers. Among the free app’s features: a simple home screen with eight image tiles from popular children’s programs; different icons for finding TV show videos, music and educational shows; and voice-based search.
The app will also allow parents to set time limits on viewing, and will tell kids to “try something else” if they search for a more adult-theme term like “sex.” There’s also a tool for easy muting and unmuting.
Youth Audience Creates YouTube Stars
Founded in 2005, YouTube — now owned by Google — currently claims more than one billion users and continues to see rapid growth globally. Increasingly, it’s also something that people use on cell phones and tablets; half of all its videos are now viewed on mobile devices.
The video site is also popular with teens and younger users. A survey commissioned by Variety last year found that YouTube stars are more popular with U.S. kids ages 13 through 17 than are movie, TV or music celebrities.
Family entertainment is another rapidly growing part of YouTube, group product manager Shimrit Ben-Yair told USA Today. While viewing times overall at the site have been growing annually by 50 percent, “for our family entertainment channels, it’s more like 200 percent,” he said.
Other Sites Ahead of YouTube
YouTube spent months working to develop the new app for young viewers, according to Friday’s report in USA Today. The effort also involved bringing in third-party organizations like Common Sense Media, a child-focused review site to help parents navigate the often overwhelming landscape of TV, movies, video games and apps.
The time appears to be right for YouTube to be coming out with its kids’ app, as other sites have already launched similar services just for younger users. Last month, for example, the micro-video site Vine rolled out Vine Kids — available only on iOS — with the same audience in mind.
“We’ve seen for ourselves — and heard from parents, siblings and others — that kids love Vine,” according to a January 30 blog post from the company. “So, we built Vine Kids, a simple new app that gives young children a fun way to watch Vines.”
