How can parents limit or turn off YouTube Shorts for kids?

1. Confirm which YouTube experience the child uses

Research context: Ofcom reported in 2025 that 96% of UK children ages 8–14 used YouTube and averaged about 48 minutes there each day. Source: Ofcom: Online Nation 2025.

Supervised YouTube and the separate YouTube Kids app do not share one identical Shorts control. The daily Shorts feed limit described here belongs to a supervised account on YouTube. YouTube Kids has its own parent settings for content, search, autoplay, and screen time. Open the child’s actual app and profile before changing anything so the instruction matches the experience in front of you.

2. Set the daily Shorts feed limit

In YouTube, sign in with the linked parent account, open Settings, choose Family Center, select the child’s supervised account, and open Time management. Set the daily Shorts feed limit there. A zero limit turns off Shorts feed scrolling for the day. When any daily limit is reached, YouTube prevents further feed scrolling until the limit resets the next morning.

The limit applies to the feed rather than declaring every short-form video unavailable everywhere. If the child needs one specific tutorial or clip, review that Shorts video on its own instead of reopening an indefinite feed.

3. Make the stopping point understandable

Tell the child what the limit means before the session begins and name what happens next. A saved demonstration, one reviewed video, or a shared search on a larger screen may fit the request better than a continuous feed. Afterward, ask which part was useful and which part made stopping harder. Use that answer to adjust the next setup without treating one difficult transition as proof that the child lacks self-control.