On top of introducing an ad-free subscription service and expanding its video ventures, YouTube seems to be focusing more on kids with its latest development.
YouTube is currently developing a kid-friendly mobile app and it plans to unveil it on Monday, Feb. 23, USA Today reported. Reports about such an app have been flying around since early 2014, and the video streaming service confirmed the app's existence last December.
In order to make sure the app was up to parental standards, YouTube had testers from parental groups such as Common Sense Media involved in the beta phase.
"Parents were constantly asking us, can you make YouTube a better place for our kids? We've seen 50% growth in viewing time on YouTube, but for our family entertainment channels, it's more like 200%," Shimrit Ben-Yair, the app's product manager, told USA Today.
Screenshots of the app show that the design will have eight different options for choosing material that interests the children, as well as options for a video-based radio, an educational section and more. The material will mainly feature popular kids shows and YouTube channels, including "Yo Gabba Gabba," "Sesame Street" and the "FuZees."
The app will also have a search bar, but it will have limited functions. If kids try to search for certain inappropriate terms, such as "sex," the app will deny the search and ask the kids to try again. However, VentureBeat notes that since the app will probably be mostly used by pre-reading age kids, the search bar won't get much use.
