YouTube launches supervised child accounts in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The move comes shortly after the UAE announced a ban on social media use for children under the age of 15, in an effort to limit the presence of minors on such platforms.

These new accounts allow parents to control their children's viewing experience and are integrated directly into the YouTube app. Supervised child accounts feature three content settings for parents to choose from.

What features do these accounts include?

The content settings allow parents to choose from various options: the Explore option, which includes educational content, tutorials, arts and crafts, and dance; the Explore More option, which adds gaming and live streams; and the Most of YouTube option, which covers almost all YouTube videos except for those rated 18+ or content deemed inappropriate for supervised accounts.

These accounts also feature a Shorts feed timer, allowing parents to set a daily time limit for scrolling through the Shorts feed. Additionally, the feed can be completely disabled by setting the Shorts timer to zero.

Other built-in controls include Take a Break and Bedtime reminders, disabling the ability to create content or write comments, and the absence of autoplay.

Personalized ad targeting is also not permitted on these accounts.

The child accounts introduced today sit alongside supervised teen accounts, which were previously available across the region. Teen accounts are an optional experience that allows teenagers to explore most of YouTube's content while facilitating open dialogue with parents.

Teen accounts include easy account linking between parents and teens, timely email notifications to inform parents if a teen uploads a video or starts a live stream, and shared information regarding the teen's channel activity.