The step almost nobody knows about
Your child turned 13 and YouTube Kids no longer fits. The problem is that the default next step is an adult account: all of YouTube, wide open, with no brakes. Between the two there is a middle ground most parents never hear about — the supervised account.
It is not a lock, it is a control panel. You decide how much of YouTube they see, how many minutes of Shorts they can scroll per day, what time the app tells them to go to bed, and which channels are off limits. Since 2026 you can even set the Shorts counter to zero.
First, which situation is yours
Google uses the word "supervised" for two different things, and mixing them up means configuring something you did not mean to. What you can control depends on who owns the account.
| Account you created | Teen's own account | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Under-13s, and teens still using the account you made them | Ages 13–17, their own account |
| Content levels | Yes, all three | Do not exist |
| Shorts limit, bedtime and break reminders | Yes | Yes |
| Block channels and clear history | Yes | No |
| See what they watch | Yes | No, only what they post |
| Who can remove supervision | Only you | You or your teen |
If you created the account (Route A)
This is the route that keeps the content filters. Levels are chosen in Family Link and everything else in YouTube's Family Center.
- Open Family Link, select your child, and go to Controls > Content restrictions > YouTube.
- Choose the content level (all three are explained below).
- Now open the YouTube app with YOUR account and go to You > Settings > Family Center.
- Select your child's profile. From there you can pause or clear history, turn off autoplay, and block channels.
- Open Time management for the daily Shorts limit and the break and bedtime reminders.
If your teen already has their own account (Route B)
There are no content filters here — what you get is time and visibility. It requires your teen to agree, because the two accounts get linked.
- Open the YouTube app and go to You > Settings > Family Center.
- Tap "Invite a teen" and then "Create invite".
- Your teen scans the QR code from their device, or you send them the link. They can also start it themselves with "Invite a parent".
- Once linked, open Time management for the Shorts limit and reminders, and Channels and activity to see what they post.
The three content levels
Explore aligns with content rated for viewers over 9: vlogs, tutorials, gaming videos, music, educational content. It can include mild romantic themes and non-graphic cartoon or video game violence. It is the natural first step for a kid just out of YouTube Kids.
Explore More aligns with content rated for viewers over 13 and adds live streams. Watch out here: it can already include non-explicit sexual themes, non-graphic violence in news, frequent strong language, sexualized dancing, and sensitive topics including suicidal ideation. It is the reasonable level for 13 to 15, but it is not a "safe mode".
Most of YouTube includes nearly everything except content marked 18+. It makes sense at 16 or 17, when the value is no longer in filtering content but in limiting time. At all three levels your teen can read comments but not post them.
Essential settings checklist
What's new in 2026
The most useful change this year is the Shorts limit that can go all the way to zero. When your teen runs out, the feed stops scrolling until the next day. It is adjustable day by day, so you can close it during exam week and open it on the weekend. YouTube announced it in January and the zero option has been available since March 2026.
Break and bedtime reminders are now scheduled by you, with two caveats worth knowing: the break reminder resets if your teen closes the app, switches devices, or pauses a video for more than half an hour, and the bedtime one can be dismissed or snoozed for fifteen minutes. Neither applies to downloaded videos or when casting to a TV.
And the underlying shift: YouTube estimates a user's age with AI, regardless of the birthday entered at signup. Anyone it classifies as under 18 automatically gets age-restricted content blocked, reminders on by default, and non-personalized ads only. The classic trick of typing a fake birth year no longer reliably works. Google does not publish which signals it uses; if the system gets it wrong, a person can verify their age with an ID, a credit card, or a selfie.