How to See What You're Child is Watching on YouTube
How to See What You're Child is Watching on YouTube
If you're a parent trying to keep track of what videos your child is watching on YouTube, there are several options that you can consider. While YouTube Kids might block most videos that aren't appropriate for younger viewers, it might not catch everything. That's why it's important to have some way to review your child's watch history instead.
Unfortunately, monitoring a child's YouTube watch history isn't straightforward, and it might require you to combine multiple approaches.
Best Strategies for Monitoring YouTube Activity By Device
What strategy parents should consider can change depending on what device their child is using. In some cases, it's not possible to completely monitor YouTube, but we'll still recommend effective approaches that can help prevent your child from being able to access explicit content.
Best Approach for iPhone
Since iPhones manage app data and website activity differently from Android smartphones, there are some limits for parents who want to effectively monitor their child's YouTube activity.
However, here's are the approaches we recommend:
Best Approach for Android Smartphones
Android smartphones are more integrated with the Google ecosystem, so it's usually a good idea for parents to manage their child's Google account to also manage YouTube activity.
Android will use a Google product called Family Link to manage and view your child's activity. This adds other features parents can use as well, such as app blocking or website filtering.
Best Approach for Windows or Mac computers
More than likely, YouTube is accessed using a web browser if your child uses their computer. As a result, it's often possible to use your web browser's history page to view your child's YouTube history.
Here's what we recommend:
Supervised YouTube Accounts
It's easy to open the YouTube app and go to a signed-in YouTube profile to view the "history" section that has the list of recently watched videos. However, when it comes to monitoring a child's YouTube activity, you'll likely need to use a different strategy.
It's also possible to set up a supervised YouTube account , which will allow a parent to remotely view a child's YouTube watch history. This requires setting up Google Family Link, so this might be an option to consider if you're child is using an Android smartphone. If your child is using an iPhone, Google Family is just not as effective.
Frustratingly, as seen in this community post , there is no way to prevent a child from deleting YouTube video watch history (even if using a Supervised YouTube account). As a result, it may be a better idea to block YouTube instead or enable YouTube restricted mode to filter content on YouTube.
Here are the steps you'll want to follow to supervise your child's YouTube account:
YouTube accounts need to be associated with a Google account (YouTube is owned by Google).
You should see your child's account listed on this page.
Monitor Browser History
If you and your child use a shared computer (or even separate ones), another option is to use browsing activity to view YouTube search and video history, without requiring Family Link.
This does have some of its own challenges, but it's especially ideal if you both share a computer. If you have separate smartphones, your setup might look a bit different.
Here are the steps we recommend:
Prevent browsing history from being deleted
This isn't an option on smartphones, but on a computer (such as a Mac or Windows laptop or desktop), it's usually possible to remove the ability to delete browsing history, add new profiles, browse in incognito mode, and browse with the guest account.
See our dedicated guide about how to disable incognito mode and private browsing features.
Filter browsing history results
Most web browsers will allow you to filter history results by a keyword, like youtube or youtube.com.
History can be accessed on most browsers by going to Settings > History.
You can also visit this link manually if you're on Chrome: chrome://history
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a child be prevented from deleting YouTube watch history?
Surprisingly, YouTube and Google do not provide a way to prevent a child from deleting watch history, even when using the YouTube Kids app. A child can even pause watching history from being recorded, which makes a Supervised YouTube account useless for monitoring. Furthermore, a child can use YouTube anonymously through a web browser's private browsing window.
It's recommended that parents instead rely on a more comprehensive parental control solution that focuses on restricting where YouTube can be accessed. For example, if you aren't reliably able to monitor the YouTube app, consider blocking the app and forcing your child to use the YouTube Kids app instead.
We have a comprehensive guide for blocking apps that is primarily written for adults self-managing their own devices, but parents can use the same techniques on their child's device.
What is YouTube Restricted Mode?
YouTube Restricted Mode is a feature on YouTube that automatically hides the vast majority of videos not suitable for general audiences. These kinds of results will not appear in search, and if the video is accessed directly with a link, YouTube will display this message:
Some other features, like comments, are also disabled.
See our dedicated guide for filtering content on YouTube for more information.