YouTube has made official a new feature update aimed at protecting teen users from potentially harmful content and overuse of the platform. The company has been working with industry experts to identify videos that may adversely affect young people.
Last year, YouTube had already taken some measures restricting repetitive viewing of social aggression content and those comparing physical characteristics or idealized body types.
As the official Google blog reports, the new update focuses specifically on video categories that experts say are harmless in a single viewing, but could be problematic for some teens if viewed repeatedly. In particular, the restrictive measures regarding the ability to view the same content several times have been extended to videos in which some individuals engage in unrealistic financial advice by suggesting “recipes for getting rich quick.” But not only that, the measures also cover “content that portrays delinquency or negative behavior,” and “content that portrays teenagers as cruel and malicious or encourages them to ridicule others.”
To make the enforcement of these new measures that enhance teen safety more effective, the platform has scheduled the update so that reminders suggesting users to “go to sleep” 30 minutes earlier than the default time–set between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.–are more prominent. If the user changes the time, YouTube suggests a minimum duration of eight hours of sleep. Another reminder to “take a break,” which is active by default for users under 18 years old, emits the signal after 60 minutes of viewing. These measures are in line with the enforcement of community guidelines, which prohibit dangerous content, scams and harassment.
