How to block YouTube Shorts

Why Shorts are the hardest part of YouTube

Shorts are YouTube's endless vertical video feed: autoplaying, algorithm-driven and designed to keep the next clip coming. For parents they are the hardest part of YouTube to manage, because short clips carry far weaker content signals than full videos and the feed format is built for exactly the kind of rabbit holes kids fall into.

What YouTube gives you built in

The honest summary: YouTube has no real off switch for Shorts.

• The X on the Shorts shelf hides it from the Home feed for about 30 days. Then it comes back, and the Shorts tab keeps working the whole time.
• Restricted Mode filters some mature content but does not remove Shorts or the Shorts feed.
• Supervised accounts (via Family Link) limit what content appears, but the Shorts experience stays in the app.
• YouTube Kids genuinely has no Shorts feed. For young children it is a reasonable answer on its own, but most kids outgrow it quickly.

Block Shorts completely with Vidward

Vidward is a browser extension controlled from a parent dashboard. Its Shorts blocker removes the shelf, the tab and short-form playback across YouTube in your child's browser.

1. 1
   Install the Vidward extension in the browser your child uses.
2. 2

   Create your parent account and link their device with the activation code from your dashboard.

3. 3

   Open your child's Filters tab and turn on Block Shorts. The change applies in their browser immediately.

Make it stick

Blocking Shorts only helps if your child cannot turn it off. Two steps close that gap: give them a standard account on Windows or on a Mac, and, if they use Chrome, run the tamper-proof setup so the extension cannot be disabled or removed.

For the bigger picture, including what to do about specific channels, see how to block a YouTube channel and the complete guide to YouTube parental controls.