Technical youth media protectionHow parents can restrict YouTube short videos
TikTok's trademark - short videos in portrait format - has since been copied by many other platforms. Instagram and Facebook adapted the format with their 'reels' and YouTube responded with the introduction of 'shorts'. These YouTube video clips in portrait format can be up to 180 seconds long, but are often significantly shorter. Users can scroll through an almost infinite amount of this content. Advertising content is also interspersed between these videos at regular intervals. Like other platforms, YouTube also works with algorithmic sorting. This means that the interests and viewing behavior of users are analyzed to decide which videos are shown to them.
As with other platforms, algorithmically sorted short content can encourage excessive media consumption. When all content is tailored to your interests and the next short piece of content is just a swipe away, it is difficult to stop. Many users - both young and old - have already found that they get stuck in TikToks, reels and shorts for much longer than they originally intended.
When it comes to YouTube, the problem is that many parents do not want to prohibit its use. After all, there is a lot of educational content on this platform that young people can use for school, for example. Until now, parents have had to accept that their children have unlimited access to the shorts function in addition to this desired type of use. YouTube now offers a new security setting that allows you to specify how long children can watch shorts per day.
How the new restriction for YouTube Shorts works
Variant 1
All users can activate a time limit in the YouTube app. Children and young people can either do this themselves or their parents can activate this function on the child's device. Important: If the function is set in this way, children and young people can simply switch the limit off again at any time. In addition, they will only be notified when their daily limit has been reached. By clicking on the "Ignore limit for today" button, the Shorts feed can continue to be used without restrictions. Furthermore, the shorts feed cannot be switched off completely in this way. The lowest possible setting is 15 minutes per day. If you want to make this setting, proceed as follows:
- In the YouTube app, click on "My YouTube" at the bottom right.
- Click on the gear icon at the top right.
- Click on "Time management".
- Click on "Limit for the shorts feed".
- Here you can now set a time limit of between 15 minutes and two hours.
Variant 2
To restrict the YouTube shorts feed so that your child cannot switch this restriction off again, the parental control program Google Family Link must be used. The shorts feed can also be completely deactivated here by setting the time limit to "0 minutes". Please note: The last option in the list is "Off". However, this does not deactivate the shorts function, as you might expect, but the time limit. You can find more information on Google Family Link in our topic area on parental control programs. If you already use Google Family Link, proceed as follows:
- Click on "Settings" at the bottom of the Family Link app.
- Click on "YouTube - Tools for parents, kids and teens".
- Click on "Time management".
- Click on "Limit for the shorts feed".
- Here you can now set a time limit for your child.
What parents should bear in mind
Please bear in mind that although you can restrict the shorts feed with this setting, you cannot completely prevent children from seeing shorts on YouTube. Shorts are also included in YouTube search results, for example. These can still be accessed by children, even if the Shorts time limit for the day has already been used up.
In addition, these settings only take effect when the YouTube app is used. Children and young people can easily bypass this restriction by using YouTube via a browser without logging in. This gives them unrestricted access to the shorts feed again.
Technical protective measures should therefore only ever be used in a supportive manner and in consultation with the children. It is important that children understand that these settings are intended to protect them and help them to use media in a balanced way. However, if rules and security settings are perceived as paternalistic or punitive, there is a risk that children and young people will look for workaround strategies.
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