Some Teen Stuff: A YouTube Wellbeing Update and the Snapchat Screenshare Feature
Item #1
I got an email from YouTube late last week promoting some recent changes they have made to better support teens.
The net net is that YouTube has developed some safeguards to minimize the repetition of certain types of content including “content that compares physical features and idealizes some types over others, idealizes specific fitness levels or body weights, or displays social aggression in the form of non-contact fights and intimidation” for young people watching YouTube
Allison Briscoe-Smith, a clinician and researcher and member of the Youth and Families Advisory Committee, explains in a blog post “a higher frequency of content that idealizes unhealthy standards or behaviors can emphasize potentially problematic messages—and those messages can impact how some teens see themselves.” The full post can be found here.
This is not a parental control that you have to activate, this is automatic. However, if your kid is on an unrestricted account (like your account) or did not use their actual birthday when creating their own account, they won’t benefit from this change.
If your kid, whatever age they may be, uses YouTube or any Social Media account for that matter, I strongly recommend doing a quick audit to make sure their account reflects their real age. Its far from perfect but social media guardrails definitely don’t work if the app doesn’t even know your kid is a kid.
To check age on YouTube, you actually have to alter (or add) the birthdate on Google+. This is because YouTube is a Google property, and like everything else under the Google umbrella, it gets age information about users from their Google+ accounts. For all other social accounts, age can be found in the user’s account settings.
My $0.02
I am very pleased to see that YouTube is addressing this issue and making changes. This was a oft debated topic when I worked at Snapchat. Finding and putting into practice a plan that honors users’ choices and doesn’t contribute to mental health challenges is not easy.
Honestly, plenty of adults I know might benefit from being able to turn on a guardrail like this. Maybe we can petition to get it as a voluntary setting for adults too?
For newer readers and subscribers—you can find more detail abut how to set up parental controls for all the usual suspects in my archive (YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram & more). They are part of the paid subscription tier but I am running a 7 day free trial, so you can check it all out before committing!
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Item #2
I was trolling around in my Snapchat Account settings this morning— as I do— when I noticed something new.
OK, what am I looking at?
This is a prompt for the web version of Snapchat. Every social media app has a web version. Ok, fine.
So why does this matter?
If you have a teen and you are trying to restrict their app time or their phone time but they still have access to a browser (like on their laptop)— know that they can still get on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok or whatever their app of choice is unless you have blocked that URL on all their browsers too. For Android devices and Chrome browsers you can manage access/block URLs in the FamilyLink app. I strongly, strongly recommend setting up a FamilyLink account. If you’re working with Apple devices, set up Family Sharing.
On the web version of Snapchat specifically, there are a bunch of things you can now do that are more than just scrolling, posting and chatting. Screensharing, video games and ‘space to collaborate’ seem to be new features. They seem like they were developed with teens in mind. This is not surprising given how teen-centric Snapchat’s audience is. I’m flagging it because I think parents should be on the lookout. I would not be surprised if we start to see more marketing directed at teens to promote features to them. I am thinking specifically about the AI for teens email I received and shared from Bard a few weeks ago (read it here).
My $0.02
If you’re not on the apps your kids are using please get in there! Make an account for yourself and open the app every so often.
PRO TIP: Frequent users are most likely to get notifications about new stuff. You want to have a good chance of getting any marketing messages that your kids might be getting.
Paid subscribers read on to hear what the teens said about these web features.
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