YouTube Kids – made for curious little minds – now available on iOS.
Just a few short years ago my friends began having children. It’s been a blessing to see these wonderful tiny infants grow into amazing young children. But, as any parent knows, those children sometimes have short attention spans. I’ve been around parents more than once when the only thing that will calm a child down is watching their favorite show on their parent’s smart phone or tablet. I’ve watched many times as that parent will dutifully hand over their phone after turning on YouTube. But, children are inquisitive creatures and they will explore. When one video ends, they find another. And how are you to know if what they find is appropriate? Well, it’s simple. Download YouTube Kids.
YouTube developer, Google Inc., recently created the YouTube Kids app to help with this exact issue. It’s made for “curious little minds to dive into a world of discovery, learning and entertainment,” as the app description states. It’s free to download and includes hours of kid-friendly, age-appropriate videos, channels and playlists. They took out all the complicated parts of YouTube and made it simple for kids to use on their own while their parents can rest assured that their child is viewing safe videos.
There is even a built-in timer that parents can set so that kids know when its time to stop watching. The parental settings are safely locked behind a grown-ups-only lock, which is just out of kids’ reach.
I think that this app is a fabulous idea and after playing around with it a bit, see how it would be very enjoyable for kids to play around with. I believe that it would hold their attention span an prevent them from wandering around to other apps that they probably shouldn’t be playing with. YouTube Kids allows kids to be independent without their parents worrying about what they are watching.
