Google has introduced a new YouTube feature allowing Pakistani parents to control how much time their children spend watching Shorts, including the option to set the limit at zero. The feature forms part of Google’s Digital Pasban online safety initiative, launched in Pakistan to help families more effectively manage children’s digital activity across the company’s platforms.
According to Google, parents can combine the new Shorts control with YouTube’s existing age appropriate content settings, along with features such as Take a Break and Bedtime reminders, to build a more comprehensive approach to managing a child’s viewing habits. The new control specifically gives parents greater flexibility to limit or completely pause short form video content when children need to focus on schoolwork or other activities, addressing growing concerns among families about the amount of time children spend scrolling through short form content.
Alongside the Shorts specific control, Google is also promoting its Family Link tool, which allows parents to manage screen time more broadly, approve which apps their children can install, filter content across devices and use device location features to keep track of where a child’s device is. Google has positioned these tools as part of a broader effort to improve digital safety and literacy among Pakistani families, building on existing parental control features already available through its various platforms.
The introduction of the Shorts limit feature reflects a wider push by Google to give parents more granular control over how children in Pakistan interact with video content, particularly as short form video continues to dominate viewing habits among younger users globally. By allowing parents to set the Shorts limit as low as zero, the company is offering families the option to remove short form content from a child’s YouTube experience entirely, while still allowing access to longer form videos and other features on the platform.
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