New teen digital well-being feature added to YouTube Shorts

YouTube has always been one of the world’s biggest media providers, and as of 2026, it is the world’s largest media company by ad revenue. With the addition of YouTube Shorts in 2021, the company has seen its overall size, market and audience increase by tending to a newer, younger smartphone-based audience with short-form videos, allowing teens to consume more content in less time.

However, with the rise in popularity of the massive internet feature, parents’ concerns over their teens’ usage and content consumption have significantly increased as well. Parents and families have been adamant in wanting more ways to ensure smooth and safe scrolling for their teens, and now YouTube is stepping up to the challenge. It has been announced that new features catering to enhancing the experience of young consumers have been added to YouTube.

Here’s a quick rundown of the new additions to the platform:

1. YouTube has now given parents control over the amount of screen time their child or teen has on Shorts. You are now able to schedule daily time limits for the amount of time allowed to scroll on Shorts, with the option to set the timer down to zero or extend scrolling time with the click of a button. According to Google, this is an industry-first feature that gives parents more control over the time their kids spend scrolling through short-form content.

2. Google has announced that YouTube has partnered with child development experts to build a new creator guide that is now available on the platform. The guide’s main objective is to direct YouTube’s content recommendation system to promote more age-appropriate content for younger viewers.

3. A new simplified setup to navigate through different accounts has been added to YouTube. Parents will now have a more efficient sign-up process when creating YouTube accounts for their child while being able to switch between child and regular accounts effortlessly.