To control the YouTube content that your child can access on your Google Nest or Home speaker or display, you have several options for child locks. You can choose the best solution for your family, whether you want to restrict content for just your kids or for everyone who uses your device.
Note: This feature may not be available in all countries, regions, or languages.
Restrict content with filters
With Google Home app content filters, you can block explicit music and video content from YouTube and other music or radio services.
You can choose whether filters affect everyone using your device, or just guests and children with a Family Link account. You can apply filters to a specific device or to all supported devices.
Restrict content on your Google Nest speakers and displays.
Set parental controls
You can control some of the features your child can use and content they can access on speakers, Smart Displays, and Smart Clocks with Google Assistant parental controls. If you have more than one child, you can set up different parental controls for each child.
Note: For parental controls to work correctly, your devices and apps must be up to date.
With parental controls, you can:
- Set up media controls for music or videos
- Block news or podcasts
- Schedule downtime
- Manage use of other Google Assistant features
Important: This feature is only available in the US and English.
Set up parental controls on Google Assistant devices.
Supervised experience on YouTube
Parents who decide their child under 13 (or the relevant age in their country or region) is ready to explore YouTube can set up a supervised experience on YouTube linked to their own account. This option limits the videos a child can find and watch using a parent-selected content setting.
Using a supervised experience, your child can ask the Google Nest or Home device to play videos from YouTube or play music from YouTube Music. To set this up:
- Create a Google Account for your child, if they don’t have one already.
- Turn on the supervised experience for your child’s account.
- View and change the parental controls and settings for your child.
- Set up voice match for your child. When your child asks your device to play YouTube videos or YouTube Music, your device will play only media that matches the content settings you choose.
Note: Casting videos from the YouTube app to other devices (including TVs) is not available for supervised accounts.
YouTube Kids
The YouTube Kids app and web experience includes popular children's videos and new content, delivered in a way that’s safer and easy to use.
You can let anyone in your household, including guests, play videos from YouTube Kids from your speaker or display when you link YouTube Kids to that device. If you link your child’s Google Account managed with Family Link, your child can ask your speaker or display to play content from the YouTube Kids account that you’ve set up for them.
To link YouTube Kids to your speaker or display, you need:
- A Google Nest Display device, such as the Google Nest Hub or Google Nest Hub Max
OR
- A Google Nest or Home speaker device linked to a TV with Chromecast. There's no audio-only option.
Set up your Google Nest or Home speaker or display device.
Note: If you link your child to your Google Nest or Home speaker device with a Google Account that is managed with Family Link, all parent settings will be honored. Otherwise, the following YouTube Kids actions won’t be supported:
- Turn Search on or off
- Clear and pause Search and Watch history
- Block or flag videos or channels, including videos or channels that you’ve previously blocked on a phone or tablet. Videos or channels that you’ve previously blocked on another device can still be played on Nest and Home devices.
- Access to the YouTube Kids older content level setting
While our systems try to exclude content not suitable for kids, no automated system is perfect and we can’t manually review all videos. If you find a video that isn’t appropriate for kids while watching YouTube Kids on your display, report it. Reporting videos is not supported on Google Nest or Home speakers.
- Open the Google Home app
.
- Make sure your mobile device or tablet is connected to the same Wi-Fi network or linked to the same account as your speaker or display.
- At the top right, tap your account.
-
Verify that the Google Account shown is the one linked to your Google device. If correct, tap
to close the account window. To switch accounts, tap the dropdown icon
, then tap another account or Add another account.
- Go back to the home screen
tap Media.
- Under “Manage your system,” tap Videos.
- Under “YouTube Kids,” tap LINK.
- If you wish to proceed, select GET STARTED.
- You are asked to sign in with your Google Account to verify your identity, in order to link YouTube Kids. You need to use the same Google Account as the one you use with your speaker or display.
- On the final screen, tap DONE to complete setup.
Once setup is complete, anyone in your household can watch videos on YouTube Kids via your Google Nest or Home speaker or display. Make sure to specify YouTube Kids in your request. For example, “Hey, Google, play science videos on YouTube Kids.” You can also set up filters in the Google Home app to designate YouTube Kids as the only video service available for your children and guests.
Set up filters on your Google Nest or Home speakers or displays.
While our systems try to exclude content not suitable for kids, no automated system is perfect and we can’t manually review all videos. If you find a video that isn’t appropriate for kids while watching YouTube Kids on your display, report it. Reporting videos is not supported on Google Nest or Home speakers.
To unlink YouTube Kids from your Google Nest or Home devices:
- Open the Google Home app
- Make sure your mobile device or tablet is connected to the same Wi-Fi network or linked to the same account as your speaker or display.
- At the top right, tap your account.
-
Verify that the Google Account shown is the one linked to your Google device. If correct, tap
- Go back to the home screen
- Under “Manage your system,” tap Videos.
- Under “YouTube Kids,” tap UNLINK.
For Google Accounts managed with Family Link:
- Whether Search is turned on or off
- Cleared and paused watch history
- Blocked videos or channels
- Content level settings
To use YouTube Kids with a Google Nest or Home speaker or display, you need to set up YouTube Kids for your child at families.youtube.com. You also need to set up your child’s supervised account as a voice-matched user on your speaker or display.
Once these steps are completed, your child can ask the Google Nest or Home device to play videos from YouTube Kids.
Other users whose accounts are not managed with Family Link need to follow the instructions under For General Google Users (accounts not managed with Family Link).
To prevent your child from watching videos on YouTube Kids, you can turn Search off in YouTube Kids settings in Family Link. Or you can use filters on your speaker or display to block all video services for your child’s supervised account.
While our systems try to exclude content not suitable for kids, no automated system is perfect and we can’t manually review all videos. If you find a video that isn’t appropriate for kids while watching YouTube Kids on your display, report it. Reporting videos is not supported on Google Nest or Home speakers.