YouTube has announced a fresh set of updates designed to give parents greater control over how their teenage children experience content on the platform, with a sharper focus on digital wellbeing, age-appropriate viewing and healthier screen habits. The changes aim to help families strike a balance between entertainment, learning and responsible use, as teen engagement with short-form and long-form video continues to grow.

According to a YouTube blogpost, the platform is introducing new controls for mindful viewing, including expanded options for managing how much time teens spend scrolling through Shorts. One of the upcoming features will allow parents to set the Shorts feed timer to zero, effectively pausing endless scrolling when needed. This is expected to give families more flexibility to manage screen time during school hours, homework sessions, travel or downtime at home.

Supervised teen accounts will also see additional wellbeing tools, with parents able to customise Bedtime and Take a Break reminders. These features build on YouTube’s existing protections for teen users and are aimed at encouraging healthier viewing routines without cutting teens off entirely from content they enjoy.

Alongside these controls, YouTube is releasing a new blueprint for high-quality teen content, developed in collaboration with its Youth Advisory Committee and leading global experts. Contributors include UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers, the American Psychological Association and the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital. The framework lays out clear principles to help distinguish enriching, age-appropriate content from low-quality or potentially harmful material for teenage audiences.

These principles will also guide YouTube’s recommendation systems, helping surface educational and constructive content from trusted creators such as Khan Academy, CrashCourse and TED-Ed. The goal, the company said, is to make it easier for teens to discover videos that are not only engaging but also informative and suitable for their stage of development.
To further simplify access to age-appropriate content, YouTube will soon introduce an updated account setup experience. Parents will be able to create new kids’ accounts more easily, switch between different family accounts within the mobile app, and ensure that each family member is served content aligned with their age group.

YouTube said the latest updates build on more than a decade of work to protect young users online, while continuing to offer a safe, engaging and inspiring space for teens to explore, learn and enjoy content responsibly.