Google launched YouTube Kids app for Australian young minds

Australian parents are deemed worried about their children as they believe that their kids are 'ruining their minds' by going through inappropriate content on YouTube and or enjoying too many Justin Bieber videos. However, with Google's latest YouTube Kids App, a different kind of online viewing can be experience by Australian kids.

Google has considered the problem and has recently launched 'Kids-friendly' YouTube Kids app in Australia for iOS as well as Android devices, as reported by News. The app is freely available on Google's Australian Play or the Apple App Store and the content included in the app has been pre-screened according to young minds such as child-friendly cooking shows, nursery rhymes, drawing tutorials and Barbie doll stop-motion animation.

This app was launched in U.S. and has become very popular since then Malik Ducard, global head of a family and learning at YouTube, stated that four categories of the content available on the app have been set, which are "Shows," "Music," "Learning," and "Explore".

YouTube Kids is designed in a more creative and colorful way than the regular YouTube app. Ducard said, with "big icons for pudgy fingers,"

"As we designed it, we looked at the data and reality is ... about 75 per cent of kids under the age of eight have access to some kind of mobile device, some form of a tablet," he added said.

"The other day I read that over 50 per cent of kids prefer to watch content on a device that's mobile over other devices. That's one of the reasons we designed this for kids in this form factor."

According to Business Insider, parents are granted with the control system as they can set a pass code on a specific content; limit the quantity of a content accessed, and put on a timer to limit children's daily viewing.

Ducard said, "When you set that timer, it ramps the child off the app with notifications. We do it in a fun way."

But in response to the opponent's claim of "unregulated advertisement' include during content viewing, Jeff Chester of Democratic Media told USA Today, "It's just one, long, uninterrupted ad,".

According to Mashable, the content in YouTube Kids app is taken from ABC Kids, Play School, Jemima's Big Adventure, and Giggle and Hoot. In addition to that, short clips from the astronomically popular Australian sisters, Charli and Ashlee, of the Charli's Crafty Kitchen, a YouTube cooking channel, as well as Bounce Patrol and Hi-5 TV. Most of the content is already made in Australia.

The app has been designed according to kids who are under-five, but still it also includes parental controls built-in, for them to decide what their kids can watch. However, through featuring large icons and voice search, a four-year-old will find anticipatedly easy to navigate.