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How to block YouTube on Roku

How to block YouTube on Roku

Using your Roku device’s parental control features or the restricted mode on YouTube can help you restrict access to content on the YouTube application.

YouTube is a popular platform for users to find entertaining video content on a wide variety of topics. However, many parents want to restrict the kind of content that their children are exposed to on their Roku devices.

Although there is no setting to just block the YouTube application on your Roku device, there are parental control features on Roku devices and on the YouTube application, both of which allow you to restrict access to certain content on YouTube.

The content on YouTube

YouTube was launched in 2005. In the beginning, YouTube was only intended to be a small video-sharing platform, where people would be able to share updates about their lives and home videos with their friends and family.

However, since then, YouTube has grown to become one of the biggest search engines on the internet with close to 2 billion users across the world visiting the platform daily, to watch content that is entertaining, shocking, and informative.

Currently, there is over 500 hours of video footage uploaded to the YouTube platform every minute and this content ranges from celebrity news and gossip to family videos, and everything in between.

How to block YouTube on Roku

Many households use their Roku devices as the primary form of entertainment in their homes, and with the vast amount of video content available on the YouTube platform, many parents want to restrict what their children have access to on YouTube.

No matter what your reason is for wanting to block access to the YouTube application on your Roku device, the process may be more complicated than you imagined.

Roku does not offer a block option for applications that it does not own. This means that you cannot just block access to the YouTube application on your Roku device.

Fortunately, there are ways to restrict access to certain applications on your Roku device, even though you cannot simply block the application.

Roku has recently introduced a Kids and Family section to the Roku Channel which features more parental controls and a pool of kid-friendly content and advertisements.

These new, added parental control features also allow you to set a four-digit PIN code that will restrict which new applications can be bought and added to your Roku library.

This means that you can remove the YouTube application from your Roku application library and it cannot be added again without this PIN.

However, if you do not want to remove the application entirely, you can restrict the kind of content that can be watched on YouTube itself.

Updating your PIN preferences on your Roku Device

To set up this four-digit PIN code that ensures that YouTube cannot be added again once it has been removed, except through this PIN, you need to set up your Roku parental control settings, by following these steps:

  • Step 1: Visit the Roku website at https://www.roku.com/ and click on the “Sign in” button to sign into your account
  • Step 2: Click on the “Profile” button and then select the “My account” option
  • Step 3: Navigate to the “PIN Preferences” section and choose the “Update” option
  • Step 4: Navigate to the “Making Purchases and Adding Content” section
  • Step 5: Click on the “To Always require a Pin to make purchases and add items from the channel store” option
  • Step 6: Enter a four-digit PIN code that you would like to use for the parental control feature and verify this PIN code
  • Step 7: Select the “Save changes” option

Removing the YouTube application from your Roku library

Now, you can remove the YouTube application from your library of applications on your Roku device, by following these steps:

  • Step 1: Press the “Home” button on your Roku remote
  • Step 2: Select the “My channels” option and navigate to the YouTube application
  • Step 3: Once you have selected the YouTube application, press the “*” button on your remote
  • Step 4: Click on the “Remove Channel” option
  • Step 5: Confirm your selection

Restricting content on the YouTube application

If you do not want to remove the YouTube application from your Roku device completely, but just want to restrict the kind of content available to watch on the YouTube application, you can enable YouTube’s parental control settings, by following these steps:

  • Step 1: Open the YouTube application
  • Step 2: Open the setting menu and find the “Restricted Mode” option
  • Step 3: Enable Restricted Mode