Review: YouTube Kids is a winner for both parents and children
After my three-and-a-half-year-old took the kids to YouTube for a test drive, I asked for an in-depth review of it. Her response: “Can I watch more videos, Dad?”
It doesn’t take long for a kid to learn the basics of using an iPad. Children are not quite intimidated by the device, which teaches it to be easy to use. And with a very familiar interface, it doesn’t take much for kids to navigate all the videos on YouTube Kids. Learn to use your iPad as well as your kid uses it …
And there are many videos
YouTube Kids is divided into five sections: Suggest, Show, Music, Education and Explore and one section each item fills a channel video. If you keep scrolling across the channels, you’ll flip from one section to the next, so you never have to tap a section.
The best educational apps for the iPad
The app also has a search function that supports voice search, although you’ll need to allow YouTube Kids to access the microphone to try voice search for the first time. The ability to search by voice is great for young children who are not able to find out what they want to see. And don’t worry, search is limited to videos within YouTube videos, so they won’t see inappropriate videos in search results.
The app also has a set of parental controls that include the ability to move the search. You can turn off background music and sound effects, but perhaps the best feature of parental controls is the timer. The timer will set a limit on how long you can use the app, so if you want your kid to only limit a half hour video, it’s easy to do.
YouTube Kids is a free app, and while its content doesn’t match the Kids profile in Netflix, it’s easily enough content to make a great alternative. And a major bonus on Netflix is that it is a dedicated app rather than a category of YouTube apps. This means you can install it on your kids’ childproof iPad, and don’t worry about how you watch the videos – all videos on YouTube Kids are age-appropriate.
In addition to entertainment, there are plenty of educational videos, which is a great bonus. And while some new apps suffer from a bad interface or annoying wounds, YouTube Kids is pretty polished. The father – and mother a course-required application
You can download YouTube Kids from the App Store.