Does Family Link block YouTube Shorts?

The short answer

No. Family Link cannot block or remove YouTube Shorts, and there is no hidden setting you are missing. A supervised account changes which videos are allowed to appear, but the Shorts shelf, the Shorts tab and the vertical swipe feed all remain part of the experience. Shorts made from allowed content flow straight through.

What Family Link actually controls on YouTube

To be fair to it, a supervised YouTube setup does real work:

• Content tiers. Google filters the catalog into broad age buckets (Explore, Explore More, Most of YouTube) and your child sees only the allowed tier.
• Autoplay defaults to off on supervised accounts.
• Device-level limits. Screen time, app blocking and bedtimes cover the device around YouTube.
• Exact-channel blocks. You can block a specific channel for a supervised account. Google's own documentation notes the catch: only that exact channel is blocked, so reuploads and copycat channels get through.

What it never gives you is format control. There is no switch for Shorts and no keyword or title rules, because Family Link's model trusts Google's classifier plus a manual blocklist rather than your standing rules.

Why the usual workarounds disappoint

• The X on the Shorts shelf hides it from Home for about 30 days, then it returns. The Shorts tab works the entire time.
• Restricted Mode filters some mature content. It does not touch the Shorts format at all.
• YouTube Kids genuinely has no Shorts feed, and for young children it is a fine answer. But if your child is on the main site with a supervised account, they have usually already outgrown the Kids app.

Remove Shorts completely

Vidward is a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari and other browsers, controlled from a parent dashboard, and 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 your child's browser.
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 feed, the tab and the shelf disappear immediately.

Go deeper

The full walkthrough, including what the built-in options do and do not do, is in how to block YouTube Shorts. For the bigger comparison of what each parental control tool covers, see the best parental controls for YouTube in 2026.