YouTube Kids has been integrated with YouTube Red and has an ad-free option.
If you are the parent of a young child who uses YouTube Kids but are bothered by various ads like those for junk good, then you don’t have to worry about it anymore starting today. Google has launched a version for their popular video platform that will allow parents the option to pay for an ad-free experience.
The new YouTube Kids version has become fully integrated within YouTube Red, the platform’s paid subscription service which provides exclusive content, offline and background playback of videos on mobile devices for $10 a month.
A.J. Crane, YouTube product manager, has announced the new Kids integration with Red in a blog post in which he wrote:
“Let your kids learn and laugh along with their favorite characters without paid ads. Keep family sing-alongs going while you use other apps on your phone.”
Currently, the new version of YouTube Kids is only available in select regions like US, New Zealand, and Australia. The integration with YouTube Red allows parents to bring their own subscriptions to the Kids app, which according to Crane, will receive some updates in the near future.
“Over the next few months, we’ll be making some changes to the app that’ll give parents more choice on how to customize the content that appears or doesn’t appear in their YouTube Kids experience.”
YouTube’s kid-friendly version was released in February 2015, on iOS and Android. It features family-friendly content with larger images and voice search. Content creators include National Geographic Kids, Reading Rainbow, DreamWorks TV, Jim Henson TV, Thomas the Tank Engine and other.
The content available to kids can be regulated by parental controls, but ads to which the kids were subjected to could not be regulated. Although there were some issues with the paid and disclosed ads which the new ad-free option removes, the main problem consumer watchdog organizations had with YouTube Kids was regarding more subtle endorsements. TV commercials could surface when kids searched for generic words like cookies.
Another problem is that while YouTube is trying to replace the traditional TV, the Kids app is not required to meet the same standards and regulations as traditional TV channels and shows have to meet.
Do you let your kids use YouTube?
Image source: YouTube
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