Parents Can Finally Puts the Brakes on Endless YouTube Shorts 

It starts with a simple scroll, a few short videos after homework, and a quick scroll before bed. But now, for many teenagers, YouTube Shorts has quietly stretched from minutes into hours, turning late nights into scrolling races and mornings into dizzy routines. However, YouTube now is finally launching a more powerful, enforceable parental control suite that includes daily time caps and the ability to turn off Shorts completely for supervised teens. 

Parents across cities, including Hyderabad, say that the habit has become harder to control than traditional screen time, largely because short-form videos are designed to never really end. And these are now becoming the most time-consuming habits.  

Now, YouTube is stepping in with a tool many parents have been asking for, which is a way to limit how long teens can scroll through Shorts on supervised accounts. 

The platform has rolled out a new parental control that allows caregivers to set a hard daily time cap specifically for YouTube Shorts. Once the limit is reached, teens can no longer continue scrolling the Shorts feed. YouTube has also announced that it is working on an option to set the Shorts limit to zero, effectively switching off short-form content while still allowing access to educational videos, subscriptions, or homework-related content. 

Unlike the general screen-time settings that restrict entire apps, this feature targets the most addictive part of YouTube’s experience, the endlessly refreshing vertical feed. Parents can also customize limits based on time of day, set reminders for bedtimes or breaks, and adjust restrictions depending on routines by tightening controls on school days and loosening them during holidays or long journeys. 

The change comes as a relief for many Parents 

Anjali Gudipati, a primary school teacher and mother of a 14-year-old from Kondapur, says that she’s not completely against YouTube but is concerned about the time consumption of endless scrolls. “My son watches science explainers and games videos there. But Shorts is different. He doesn’t even remember what he watched, just that he watched a lot because 80 percent of the reels are just not informative at all. This feature helps separate useful viewing from mindless scrolling”, she added highlighting the content that is being developed on shorts and the endless scrolling of it. 

However, YouTube says this is an industry-first move, and the aim is to give parents direct control over short-form consumption rather than forcing all-or-nothing bans. The platform is also updating its recommendation system for teen accounts, prioritizing content that promotes curiosity, learning, wellbeing, and life skills. Educational creators like Khan Academy, CrashCourse, and TED-style explainers are expected to be amplified, while low-quality or repetitive content will be deprioritized. 

This move is also followed by the growing concern among the researchers about the psychological effects of constant short-video consumption. Studies have linked excessive scrolling to attention fatigue, emotional numbing, anxiety, and negative self-image, particularly among adolescents whose brains are still developing. The rapid dopamine feedback loop of short videos, experts warn, can make it difficult for teens to disengage on their own. 

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that nearly one in five teens say they are online “almost constantly,” with YouTube used by nine out of ten teenagers, making it the most universally used platform among adolescents.  

Harika Guthikonda, whose 16-year-old son studies in Jubilee Hills, believes the feature is useful and changes the screentime. “Limits help, especially because kids don’t pay attention to the screentime and parents cannot check it every day. Instead, these features would help limit screentime without an extra effort everyday”, she added. Harika emphasized on how busy parents could get which often makes it hard for them to check on screen time and explained that these kind of features added to every app would make better screen time especially for kids and teens. 

YouTube Shorts has grown explosively since its launch, crossing 70 billion daily views globally last year. While it has helped creators and artists reach new audiences, its design has also made it easy for users, especially teens to lose track of time. 

By allowing parents to control the scroll without banning the platform entirely, YouTube appears to be acknowledging a reality families already know, that the hardest part isn’t getting teens onto screens but it’s helping them step away instead.