Parents can now manually set a time limit on their kids’ YouTube Shorts feed, ranging from fifteen minutes to two hours (with an option for zero minutes coming soon). The update, announced on Wednesday, takes the Shorts time limit feature YouTube introduced in October and adapts it for under-18 accounts. Kids and teens can’t change or disable the time limit setting on their end.
Similarly, parents can set custom “Bedtime” and “Take a break” reminders for their kids’ accounts, which are also available as optional features for adult users. The new features are rolling out after YouTube began a push to identify and restrict minors’ accounts last year using AI age estimation based on users’ YouTube activity and the age of their account.
YouTube is also making it easier for parents to make sure their kids are in the right account category. An update to the YouTube sign-up page rolling out in the coming weeks will allow parents to manually set their child or teen’s age category when creating a new account and adjust the content their account is allowed to access.