YouTube is bringing in additional safeguards for content recommendations for teens in Europe.
The support has been developed with a team of independent experts from YouTube’s Youth and Families Advisory Committee that specialise in child development, digital learning and children’s media.
One key insight from the committee is that teens are more likely than adults to form negative beliefs about themselves when seeing repeated messages about ideal standards in content they consume online.
In a blog post, Dr Garth Graham, Director and Head of YouTube Health & James Beser, Director of Product Management, YouTube Youth said that this has led to the identification of categories of content that while innocuous as a single video, could be problematic for some teens if viewed repetitively.
“These categories include content that compares physical features and idealizes some types over others, idealizes specific fitness levels or body weights, or displays social aggression in the form of non-contact fights and intimidation,” explain Graham & Beser.
“As a result, we’re now limiting repeated recommendations of videos related to those topics for teens globally. As always, we’re continuing to enforce our Community Guidelines to remove content and prevent minors from seeing videos that cross the line of our policies, including on child safety, eating disorders, and harassment.”
A new “supervised experience” is being introduced that will give parents and teens the option to link their accounts and get shared insights and notifications.
The objective is to keep parents informed about their teens’ channel activity on YouTube. It builds on a similar scheme already available for pre-teens.
A new Family Centre is being introduced, where parents can see shared insights into their teens’ channel activity on YouTube including the number of uploads, subscriptions and comments. Parents (and teens) will also receive proactive email notifications at key events, like when teens upload a video or start a livestream.
