Back in February 2021, Google announced a new supervised YouTube experience for older kids and teens who are ready to move on from YouTube Kids. While this experience is still in beta, the company is adding YouTube Music into the fold. In an email to Google Family Link users, the internet giant revealed that children whose parents have granted them access to the supervised YouTube experience will soon be able to use YouTube Music as well. Once rolled out “in the coming weeks,” supervised accounts will be able to access the music streaming service on Android, iOS, and the web. The video experience, meanwhile, will also be accessible on TVs.
The whole thing will remain under parents’ supervision, of course. So it’s up to them to decide whether their children should have access to the main YouTube app instead of YouTube Kids. Moreover, they will also be able to control what music and videos are available to their children. All of these controls are available from account settings in the Google Family Link system.
Google says this move comes after listening to the feedback from Family Link users. “Every child is unique, and we work hard at YouTube to provide options for parents and caregivers that support the individual needs of their families,” the company said in the email (via Reddit).
Google is finally addressing a major complaint with its Family Link system
Google’s Family Link system is a great platform for parents to monitor their children’s online activities and keep them away from inappropriate content on the internet. Children are given a supervised Google account linked to their parents’ accounts. This gives parents access to their account settings, allowing them to control everything.
But parents have always had a major complaint with this system regarding music listening. They couldn’t give their kids access to Google’s music streaming service, i.e. YouTube Music, which already offers family plans and uses a Google account. Moreover, it comes bundled with a YouTube Premium subscription.
As a result, many users had to subscribe to alternate music streaming services just for their kids. Google is finally addressing this complaint by offering access to YouTube Music via a supervised Google account. Google Play Music, the default music app on Android that the company replaced with YouTube Music in 2020, did allow kids under 13 to have their own music libraries. So Google is quite late in rolling out this ability to the succeeding service. Hopefully, a broader rollout isn’t too far off. We will keep you posted.
2022-01-24 15:07:26