YouTube Gives Parents Tools to Block Shorts. Here’s Why That’s a Good Thing.

Published: January 16, 2026

By Mallory Mattingly

YouTube has just updated its parental controls, giving parents the option to block their children from watching Shorts.

“This is an industry-first feature that puts parents firmly in control of the amount of short-form content their kids watch,” Jennifer Flannery O’Connor, YouTube’s vice president of product management, wrote in a blog post.

The potential harm caused by short-form content is well documented.

“Emerging research suggests that watching short-form videos make it difficult for children to engage in activities that don’t offer instant — and constant — gratification,” Nathan Crispo wrote for the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology.

YouTube’s new feature will help parents curb the addictive nature of Shorts by enabling them to “voluntarily link accounts.”

“For example, they can set the Shorts feed limit to zero when they want their teen to use YouTube to focus on homework, and change it to 60 minutes during a long car trip to be entertained,” O’Connor explained.

Through linked accounts, parents can also set Bedtime and Take a Break reminders.

Additionally, added safeguards will ensure “mature-aged content isn’t seen by younger users. So while sometimes content on YouTube doesn’t violate our Community Guidelines, it may not be appropriate for viewers under 18,” YouTube explained. “In these cases, we place age-restrictions on the video. This applies to videos, video descriptions, custom thumbnails, live streams, and any other YouTube product or feature.”

O’Connor emphasized that these new features will make it “easier to ensure that everyone in the family is in the right viewing experience with the content settings and recommendations of age-appropriate content they actually want to watch.”

But how exactly does YouTube determine a user’s age?

“YouTube employs a dual approach by using self-declared age as well as the application of an age estimation model that uses machine learning to determine whether a user is over or under 18,” the platform explained. “Regardless of the birthday in the account, this technology enables us to deliver age-appropriate product experiences and protections, treating teens as teens and adults as adults.”

Basically, YouTube relies on AI to “interpret a variety of existing signals that help us to determine whether a user is over or under 18. These signals include the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched, or the longevity of the account.”

To set up these parental controls, you will need to go to the main app, go to settings, click on the profile you wish to control, then click edit settings. From there you can approve what content your child can view.