Alphabet (GOOGL) is introducing parental controls for its popular video platform YouTube.
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Going forward, Alphabet will let parents limit the amount of time their children and teens can spend scrolling through its short-form video feature called “Shorts,” or block those videos altogether. The new parental controls are part of efforts to protect young users and respond to growing criticism from families and children advocates about the impacts of social media and videos on mental health.
Alphabet, which is also the parent company of the Google search engine, has acknowledged that endlessly scrolling through short videos can make social media platforms addictive, especially for children and teenagers. Parents supervising their teen’s account can now set a time limit on Shorts, ranging from two hours to zero minutes.
Bedtime Reminders on YouTube
In addition to limiting the time spent on Shorts or blocking the short-form videos entirely, parents can also set bedtime and “take a break” reminders for their kids to help limit their time on the platform. Alphabet said that YouTube is also adding a new sign-up process to make it easier for parents to create supervised accounts for their kids and teens.
And YouTube is updating its guidelines for the types of content that will be recommended and accessible to teenagers. It will prioritize videos centered around “curiosity and inspiration,” “building life skills and experiences,” and “information that supports wellbeing.” Teens will be blocked from repeatedly viewing videos with content deemed to be dangerous or that could send them down rabbit holes.
Is GOOGL Stock a Buy?
The stock of Alphabet has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 34 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 27 Buy and seven Hold recommendations issued in the last three months. The average GOOGL price target of $342.39 implies 3.80% upside from current levels.
