Reports indicate that YouTube wants to create a site that parents would trust

Mar 18, 2014 10:49 GMT  ·  By

YouTube is working to build a version of its site that is suitable for children and it is reportedly looking to get video producers to create specially made content.

According to The Information, the most popular video streaming site in the world is aiming to create a safe place for children under 10 years old where they can watch videos without their parents worrying about what type of content they may run into.

The site would be free of videos and comments that adults usually want to shield their children of. The special app could work on multiple devices, just like YouTube, but it would only include kid-safe content.

YouTube’s idea is a great one, but unfortunately for anyone who got excited about the prospect, the tool is nowhere near complete and close to launch. Details about how exactly it will work are also unclear.

If YouTube were to follow the same path with people uploading whatever content they want, then the system is surely not going to work since the company would have to police all videos. Instead, and perhaps the most probable version, producers should submit videos to this new YouTube site and if they follow a fixed guideline, they’ll become available for kids to watch.

YouTube is no stranger to installing safety measures to protect children and, after all, neither is Google, the giant behind the streaming service. YouTube, for instance, has a safety mode for filtering out inappropriate content and language, as well as YouTube EDU, a version specifically made for schools and which only contains educational videos.

The sites, however, continue to be backed and supported by advertisements and it’s often tricky to make sure that children don’t get access to questionable content through those.

With the YouTube for kids site, the company would have to weed out ads completely or make sure to only assign appropriate content if they wish to keep everything clean.

Last year, there was a rumor that YouTube was going to launch an ad-free version of the main website, for a price. Reports back then indicated that the company was getting ready to add a subscription model, charging users $10 (€7.2) a month, which would allow them a series of actions. Aside from cutting off advertising completely, users would be able to stream album music, as well as to save videos to watch them offline. Whether any of these projects will see the light of day remains to be seen.