New fibre connections offering up to 1000Mb/s have so much speed that whole families have the opportunity now to use 5 or 10 or 20 devices and stream high definition video in real time without a hiccup. Super fast fibre broadband packages offered by Irish Internet providers like Atlantek Broadband have given and amazing freedom and possibilities to enjoy the internet and all the content but this also has created hazards for the youngest ones. In this article, our team would like to talk about Youtube and the risks involved with unlimited access to it.
Blocking YouTube for children: Why? Basic information about the risks
YouTube is the world’s most popular platform for video content. It is used by millions of users every day, both to watch videos and to create their own content. The portal contains a large number of videos. An estimated 60 minutes of new material is added to the site every second.
Don’t know how to assemble a washing machine without calling in a professional? Type the right words into the search engine and you will immediately find instructional videos, whose creators will show you how to solve the problem yourself. Looking for the perfect recipe for a Spanish omelet that shows you not only what ingredients to use, but also what a perfectly beaten egg should look like? On YouTube, you can see for yourself how a food vlogger from Madrid prepares such a dish.
But YouTube is also a great danger, especially for young people. Imagine a portal where almost any video can be posted. Then all users can watch it. So it is not surprising that it is easy to find content on YouTube that is inappropriate for children, such as nudity, violence and vulgar language. Of course, the portal (together with active users) monitors the content and tries to block videos that may be illegal. Corresponding algorithms also determine whether a particular video can be viewed by minors.
But does it guarantee 100% safety? Not exactly. So much material is posted every day that YouTube cannot keep track of all videos. This is why many parents decide to take matters into their own hands. There are several ways to block YouTube on a child’s computer so that they can’t watch inappropriate content when their parents are away.
How can I block YouTube on my computer?
There are several ways to block children’s access to YouTube. You can change the settings on the site itself to prevent younger children from using it, or you can block the site completely with your browser. The methods described below apply to blocking YouTube on desktop and laptop computers. However, please note that children often use the Internet on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.
Route 1 – change settings on YouTube
Go to the YouTube account on the computer your child uses to watch videos or cartoons. You will see an account icon in the top right corner. Click on it to see more options. At the bottom you will find a button called “Restricted Access Mode”. Activate this option to allow the portal to filter out content that may be inappropriate for young viewers in the future. Please note, however, that no filter offers a 100% guarantee of safety and that this setting only applies to a specific web browser. If you have other browsers installed on your computer, you should set a restricted access function in each of them.
Method 2 – Blocking specific websites
To find out how to completely block YouTube on your computer, instead of restricting only specific content, you will need to “delete” specific sites in your browser. We will discuss this using the example of Poland’s most popular browser, Google Chrome. There are many ways to do this, but many of them require at least advanced computer skills. If you are not experienced in this field, a simpler solution may be to use a Chrome extension called Blocksite.
You can download the extension for free from the Google Chrome Web Store and block access to a particular website in a few simple steps. Just install the extension, click on the corresponding icon in the browser bar and manually enter the address of the website you want to block. In this case, it is www.youtube.com. From now on, YouTube will be completely blocked in the Chrome browser.
Method 3 – Avast blocks YouTube
Apart from YouTube’s restricted access feature and blocking websites through the browser, there are other ways to protect your child from inappropriate online content. Some anti-virus software, such as the popular Avast, a software that Atlantek Computers staff has an intimate connection too. We have used Avast for almost two decades as an antivirus but also as a tool that makes it easy to block access to certain websites that may pose a threat to the computer or the user. This can
