Paramount Plus just got safer and better for kids – here’s what’s changed
Paramount Plus just made some great improvements for kids. Speak with The edge, the streamer’s executive vice president Dan Reich explained that the library of Nickelodeon shows is the second-largest “content draw” for the service. And that means the streamer wants to make its selection as attractive as possible for kids – and make it attractive to parents, since the safe space like YouTube is certainly not.
It’s easy to make fun of censorious parents, but after seeing some of the content that my youngest’s peers see and share, it’s very clear that a lot of kids are seeing content they shouldn’t be seeing, and it’s a nagging concern for me: that’s just not it. It is possible to always supervise slightly older children, but you don’t want them to have unfettered access to everything. And the changes Paramount Plus has made seem very worthwhile to me.
What’s changing for Paramount Plus’ kids accounts?
Paramount has also changed the profile creation section, age restrictions, and user interface. It’s now easier to set up kid profiles and enable Kids Mode, and that’s now been supplemented with a new Younger Kids option that can limit shows to those rated TV-Y and G, but not older. There is also an option for older children that increases the allowable age rating to PG. Whichever option you use, Paramount says it won’t collect any personal information from your children’s accounts and won’t provide personalized recommendations to children under the age of seven.
The interface will be different for younger children, with much larger icons and far fewer words to reflect little ones’ reading skills. And autoplay is disabled for all child profiles.
These changes are already live, but more may be on the way: as Reich explained, the profile creation section will likely get more tweaks later this year and the streamer will also be able to create (safe) AI-generated playlists with kid-friendly content to offer.