Free introduces YouTube Kids to Freebox

French operator Free has announced the integration of YouTube Kids into its Freebox set top boxes. 

The operator said that this marks the first time in France that the children’s app has been integrated directly into a set top box and that the partnership is a part of its “desire to always offer more content to its Freebox subscribers.”

The app is available to subscribers at no additional cost, and is available on Freebox Delta, Freebox Révolution, Freebox One and Freebox mini 4K.

YouTube Kids is a heavily-moderated version of the ubiquitous video platform, and was designed to give children a safe environment to enjoy entertaining and informative video content online.

The app comes with a suite of parental control tools which allow adults to create user profiles, personalise their content and limit the amount of time that their children can use the app.

The announcement comes several days after YouTube implemented its new privacy systems in order to comply with a ruling from the FTC.

Content creators publishing videos designed for children must specify in their upload that they are “made for kids”. This removes targeted ads (in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, which found that such adverts are harmful to children), user comments and live chats.

The Google-owned company specified that “YouTube now treats personal information from anyone watching children’s content on the platform as coming from a child, regardless of the age of the user.”