By Gavin Boyle
While Spotify has had a kid’s app for years, it has now introduced better parental controls on the primary app, allowing parents to manage their kids accounts directly through their family plan settings.
“At Spotify, we want to give parents and kids the ability to explore music together, from introducing children to the same songs you loved at their age, to helping guide their individual discovery,” Spotify said in a blog post. “Every child is different, and every family’s journey is unique, so we’ve been evolving our tools to help caregivers share music in a way that feels right for them.”
The new settings allow parents to toggle their child’s access to features such as explicit content, the playback of specific artists and songs, and whether their child can access videos posted onto Spotify. The ability to toggle these features makes the platforms significantly safer for young users as it give parents much control over whether their children will have the opportunity to come across content that is not age-appropriate.
Related: Spotify’s New Premium Perk Changes Everything
Earlier this year, Spotify introduced a direct messaging system, which can also now be turned off for younger users.
“Spotify users have told us they want a dedicated space within the app to share songs, podcasts, or audiobooks they’re excited about with friends and family, and an easy way to keep track of recommendations,” the platform explained in the beginning of September. “For artists, authors, and creators, easier sharing means more word-of-mouth recommendations and helps create new fans. Our goal is to give users what they want and make those moments of connection more seamless and streamlined in the Spotify app.”
These better parental controls are a long time coming, especially as the platform has come under fire recently for allowing pornography to be shared through its video feature. While Spotify was quick to acknowledge the issue and confirm that adult videos are against its terms of service, it is beneficial nonetheless for parents to be able to turn videos off for their kids.
“As part of our platform rules, we do not allow sexually explicit material on our platform,” a Spotify rep said in response to the issue.
As children’s safety online seems to be attacked on all sides, from unsafe AI chatbots to a slew of predators on their favorite games, it is encouraging to see Spotify take the safety of young users seriously and enable parents to protect their children in the way they see best fit.
Read Next: What Parents Need to Know About Spotify’s New Direct Messaging Feature
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