In a post on the company's official blog, YouTube yesterday announced that its paid subscription service -- dubbed YouTube Red -- will now encompass YouTube Kids, enabling "a whole new set of features for the family to enjoy" whenever parents sign up for Red. Available in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, the move comes about 15 months after YouTube Kids came under fire by some prominent child advocacy groups, who claimed the app was deceptively targeting its underage viewers with ads.

Stemming from restrictions placed on kids entertainment from the 1970's, the worry centered around a child's undeveloped ability to repel targeted advertisements, since most don't understand that they're being targeted in the first place. The groups asked Google to look much deeper into YouTube Kids because of such concerns, even going so far as to ask the company to remove all of its popular "unboxing videos" from the kid version of YouTube because, "They're an ad, in essence, for toys."

youtube kids with youtube red
YouTube is now hoping that bundling Kids into its $9.99 per month Red service will address some of these concerns. The biggest bullet point is that paying for Red brings ad-free videos to everywhere on YouTube, which will now include Kids for families under the Red umbrella, the company saying that this is a way to "let your kids learn and laugh along with their favorite characters without paid ads." Google also dropped a few other pros of its new Kids-friendly bundle, which essentially echo the benefits of YouTube Red's main service.

Parents who sign up for YouTube Red enable a whole new set of features for the family to enjoy, including:

Ad-free videos: Let your kids learn and laugh along with their favorite characters without paid ads.
Offline videos: In the car or on grandma’s couch—automatically have videos when you need ‘em, even if you don’t have a connection.
Uninterrupted music: Keep family sing-alongs going while you use other apps on your phone.

There might still be cause for concern for parents out there, however, since the only direct removal of advertising comes in the miniature ads sometimes placed before videos. In the original list of concerns and complaints from 2015, the FTC was asked to investigate specific aspects of YouTube's basic structure in its new Kids app, especially "branded channels," like one for McDonald's, which could potentially "take advantage of children because they do not understand that the entire channel is actually advertising."

YouTube has made no such move to moderate content like this in its app for children, and originally stated last year that it "consulted with numerous partners and child advocacy and privacy groups" when building YouTube Kids. In today's blog post, the company said that more updates to the Kids app are incoming, and hinted at more regulatory control for parents in the future: "we’ll be making some changes to the app that’ll give parents more choice on how to customize the content that appears or doesn’t appear in their YouTube Kids experience."

YouTube Kids is available for free on the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

swm Avatar
121 months ago
RedTube for kids?!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nickmcpherson97 Avatar
121 months ago
RedTube for kids?!
Lol. You'd think of all entities, Google would know not to call it RedTube. Erm. YouTube Red for cause of sharing similarities in name with another video streaming website...
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djcerla Avatar
121 months ago
All 3 YouTube Red users were reportedly pleased with the news.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dguisinger Avatar
121 months ago
It irritates me to no end that if you use YouTube on an iPhone it ends playback when you switch apps, but if you are willing to pay for YouTube Red they will enable it. I refuse to pay them for a standard app-level convenience every other streaming app provides. Sometimes I just want to respond to a text message or email while continuing to listen to a video i'm watching. The other thing that drives me crazy with YouTube is the number of times I get a playback error screen mid-playback (much more now that I'm on an iOS beta), and if you tap to try again, a lot of times you get an ad before it continues where it left off. Monetizing on their failure to deliver...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
0248294 Avatar
121 months ago
It irritates me to no end that if you use YouTube on an iPhone it ends playback when you switch apps, but if you are willing to pay for YouTube Red they will enable it. I refuse to pay them for a standard app-level convenience every other streaming app provides. Sometimes I just want to respond to a text message or email while continuing to listen to a video i'm watching. The other thing that drives me crazy with YouTube is the number of times I get a playback error screen mid-playback (much more now that I'm on an iOS beta), and if you tap to try again, a lot of times you get an ad before it continues where it left off. Monetizing on their failure to deliver...
They do this on Android too, really silly to put such a basic feature behind a paywall.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pat500000 Avatar
121 months ago
When a child, who has dyslexia, entered Redtube instead of youtube RED.
"Look mommy, I'm learning educational stuff....all that slimes on that person's face."

....

...
..
all kidding aside......i think this is some predatorial s***
I'm sure there are some people on this site that uses YTR....
but whatever....(lazy voice tone).
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
M6 MacBook Pro Feature 1

M6 MacBook Pro: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Monday October 27, 2025 9:15 am PDT by
Apple this month refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are expected to follow in early 2026. However, these machines will represent the final update to the current design, with Apple reportedly developing a completely new version of the MacBook Pro packed with next-generation hardware...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
iOS 26 Battery Glass Feature

iOS 26.1 Beta Liquid Glass Battery Drain Test: Tinted vs Clear Mode

Friday October 24, 2025 2:30 pm PDT by
In the fourth iOS 26.1 beta, Apple added a "Tinted" option that reduces the translucency of Liquid Glass for those who prefer a more opaque look. I saw some comments wondering whether the setting might preserve battery life, so I thought I'd do some testing. Test Settings I did four separate tests using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I kept the parameters as similar as possible. Here are the...
ios 26 digital id passport wallet

Apple Says U.S. Passport Feature on iPhone is Coming Soon

Monday October 27, 2025 7:41 am PDT by
You will "soon" be able to add a digital version of your U.S. passport to your iPhone, according to Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. Bailey reiterated that the feature is coming soon during her keynote at the Money20/20 USA conference in Las Vegas on Sunday. On its iOS 26 page, Apple says the delayed feature will be "coming later this year." Apple's...
All Screen iPhone 2027 Feature 1

iPhone XX? 6 Features Rumored for Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone

Monday October 27, 2025 4:01 pm PDT by
For the 10th anniversary iPhone that came out in 2017, Apple introduced the iPhone X with Face ID, notch, and minimized bezels, providing more display space than ever before. The 20th iPhone anniversary is approaching and Apple wants to take the iPhone X design even further. We're two years away from the 2027 iPhone, but it's tough for Apple to keep major changes under wraps. We've rounded...
macos tahoe

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for macOS Tahoe 26.1

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:21 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of macOS Tahoe 26.1, which means the update will likely see a public launch next week. The release candidate includes notes on what's in the update, so we have a full picture of the new features that Apple has included. macOS Tahoe 26.1 adds AutoMix support over AirPlay, improved FaceTime audio...