Following in the footsteps of other tech giants, Spotify announced Friday that it will introduce parental controls to the app in the form of “managed accounts” for listeners under the age of 13. The new feature will initially be offered as a pilot program for parents or guardians with a family plan in select markets, including Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden.
Once this feature is enabled, parents will be able to manage their young listeners’ account on their account by preventing them from watching videos, playing content, or even viewing Canvas videos (the looping videos that accompany music playback) of any content that is labeled as explicit. Additionally, parents will be able to decide whether their child can play certain artists or tracks using a new control feature. This allows the parent or guardian to make more granular decisions about what kind of music is available to their child, without forcing them to use the more child-friendly, but also more restrictive, Spotify Kids app.
The launch follows efforts by other big tech companies, including TikTok, Meta, Snap and YouTube, to give parents more control over how their children use their apps and what kind of features they have access to, driven by growing pressure from regulators to rein in Big Tech. Other streaming services, including Netflix, Max and Hulu, among others, also offer parental controls to parents.
While Spotify isn’t a TV and movie streaming service or a full-featured social app, it does have a wide variety of content on its platform, some of which may not be appropriate for younger listeners.
Parents who currently share an account with their children may also be asked to switch to a family plan, as each account on the plan will have its own independent recommendations. This means that parents’ music tastes won’t be mixed with those of their tweens and vice versa. This will make Spotify’s end-of-year Wrapped results more accurate, Spotify notes.
Parents can access the new feature from the Accounts page of the app, where they can select the “Add a listener under 13” option (or the market equivalent) and then follow the instructions to navigate through the different options.
