As Netflix dives more and more into the mobile app world, having recently released mobile gaming options, they are launching an iOS feature for children to potentially compete with TikTok and YouTube Kids. Netflix is calling this new option “Kids Clips.” This week, the company will be rolling out the feature for iOS users in several countries including the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Latin America, and Australia. It hasn’t been said if the feature will be available on Android.
Social media caters to the short attention spans of younger generations who are always looking for the next trend. Netflix aims to use Kids Clips as a way to promote its content by using short snippets and clips. It uses a similar interface to TikTok and Instagram Reels, but instead of portrait-view, it’s designed to view in landscape. Kids Clips will restrict streaming time for children and comes with an option to watch 10 or 20 clips at a time. There will be a selection of content from Netflix’s current library that they tailor for children, pulling from such hits as “Henry Danger,” “The Thundermans,” and “Cocomelon.”
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TikTok is a huge competitor for Netflix grabbing precious attention and viewership with shorter clips and endless accounts. TikTok also offers a few ways for parents to manage their kids’ accounts. You can either enable time limits and the content filter on your kid’s phone, protect the settings with a passcode, or you can download TikTok, create your own account, and use the Family Pairing feature to manage your kid’s TikTok settings using your own phone. Other than Restricted Mode, there’s no way to filter out content on TikTok, so parents are encouraged to share an account with kids over 13. This will let you keep an eye on what your kid is viewing and posting.
A study by the Parents Television and Media Council revealed that Netflix is known for having the best parental controls due to their granted ability to create profiles with specific maturity ratings, to block certain shows, lock different profiles, turn autoplay on/off, and give access to viewing history. Netflix also provides a “Kids Activity Report” that gives parents a breakdown of what their kids are watching, recommendations, and so forth.
With the release of Netflix’s Kids Section in 2011, the service has since adapted features such as updated visual cues for kids to easily find their favorite characters and curating the user’s selection based on past viewing.
According to data in a Qustodio report, kids ages 4 to 15 now spend an average of 85 minutes per day watching YouTube videos, and 80 minutes per day on TikTok. While Kids Clips will put Netflix way ahead of competitors like Meta (Facebook) whose public fallout and controversy has postponed indefinitely their release of a version of Instagram for children under 13 years old, it is unknown if Netflix can even get close to being as popular as TikTok or Youtube.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.