You can find the YouTube app now on every modern device, from smartphones to Smart TVs. And Vizio isn’t an exception. Although there is much helpful content on YouTube, you may also find inappropriate videos. That’s why some parents want to block it, so their kids don’t accidentally or intentionally watch sensitive content.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple in the case of Vizio Smart TV. In short, you can’t just put a password on a specific app, as you can do on other Smart TVs. Nevertheless, you can still enable the so-called Restricted Mode in the YouTube app.
So let’s take a closer look at how it works on Vizio Smart TV.
How to enable Restricted Mode in YouTube on Vizio Smart TV
As mentioned above, the only way to filter out potentially mature and age-restricted content on YouTube on your Vizio Smart TV is to enable Restricted Mode. This way, YouTube will automatically filter out inappropriate videos, and children won’t be able to find and watch them.
So do the following:
- Launch the YouTube app on your Vizio Smart TV and sign in to your Google account.
- After that, scroll down to the Settings tab and select Restricted mode.
- Finally, enable it by selecting On.
Once you have completed these steps, you can safely let your children watch YouTube on your Vizio Smart TV.
Moreover, you should know that if your child has a controlled Google account, you can go to Settings and then to Parents Settings to customize your YouTube experience. It gives access to parental control options, such as changing content levels, blocking specific channels, disabling the search function, pausing viewing history, disabling autoplay, etc.
Why can’t you block YouTube on Vizio Smart TV?
Most Smart TVs or streaming devices, such as Roku or Apple TV, have a wide range of parental control settings. With these, users can restrict certain types of content and set a PIN code to block apps from unauthorized access.
Vizio Smart TV has a parental control option, but its capabilities are primitive. You can only block over-the-air TV channels if you have an antenna, cable/satellite or DVR connected to the TV. For SmartCast streaming apps, there is no option to set a password. That’s why you can’t block YouTube on your Vizio Smart TV.
Furthermore, one of the significant drawbacks of Vizio Smart TVs is that you can’t uninstall an app. The company writes about this explicitly on its official website. In other words, you can’t even delete YouTube. This is because Vizio needs to subsidize its SmartCast platform at the expense of advertisers and streaming giants to maintain profit margins on its high-priced models.
Can you install YouTube Kids on Vizio Smart TV?
Unfortunately, you won’t find YouTube Kids in the Vizio Smart TV app store. For those who are unaware, this app is designed for kids to learn age-appropriate videos, playlists, and kid-friendly channels.
And while you won’t be able to install the YouTube Kids app on your Vizio TV, you can still download it to your Android or iOS device and use the screen mirroring feature to stream videos to your TV. The app also offers basic parental controls, allowing parents to customize the YouTube experience for their kids.
A Vizio Smart TV with a built-in Chromecast and AirPlay receiver is required for the screen mirroring feature to work. Ensure that the mobile device and the TV are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
