YouTube Parental Controls Added

An optional mode has been added on YouTube which allows users to filter out any objectionable content or user comments. Dubbed Safety Mode, the filter is activated by navigating to the bottom of any YouTube page, then clicking the “safety mode is off” link, turning the mode on and hitting the save button takes away the objectionable content and comments while you view the site.

"While no filter is 100 percent perfect, Safety Mode is another step in our ongoing desire to give you greater control over the content you see on the site," a post on the YouTube blog said. So it would seem.

If you have an account on the site, you can lock in the safety mode by signing in and then turning safety mode on as per above. In order to turn the mode off henceforth, you have to provide your password a second time. This means that in order to completely protect their kids from seeing something they shouldn’t, parents need to make sure that they are logged in to their YouTube account with the mode on, at all times.

The new mode automatically omits content associated with certain keywords, like anything related to sexually explicit subjects or graphic violence. This new filter probably has nothing to do with Google’s recent disagreements with the Chinese government over censorship (YouTube being owned by Google, of course), but it makes you wonder.