YouTube is making it even easier for children to watch online videos with the introduction of a kid-friendly app.
"This is the first step toward re-imagining YouTube for families," product manager Shimrit Ben-Yair wrote on YouTube's official blog on Monday.
YouTube is popular with children and families for its abundance of free video entertainment. But YouTube Kids is the first Google app designed "with little ones in mind," Ben-Yair wrote.
The app, available for free in the US via Google Play and the Apple Store, includes kid-centric features like big controls for little fingers and voice-controlled search for the preliterate.
But the app aims at parents, too, with options to turn off sounds, censor search settings and limit screen time with a timer that "lets the app be the bad guy".
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"The app alerts your child when the session is over, so you don't have to," Ben-Yair wrote. "You're welcome."
Founded in 2005 and acquired by Google a year later, YouTube is the world's most popular online video platform, with more than one billion users.
