There’s no app quite as perfect for a child’s attention span as Vine. But like so many other places on the Internet, Vine is host to many videos that are inappropriate for a younger audience.
To help parents feel comfortable with their kids scrolling through six-second videos on repeat, Twitter-owned Vine created Vine Kids, a new iOS app that features age-appropriate videos accompanied by animated characters.
According to a company blog post, the app was created at a company hack week after one colleague lamented the inability to filter out videos that weren’t appropriate for his two-year-old daughter.
The design is similar to a handful of other apps, but it’s built specifically to help kids quickly understand the user interface—by swiping right or left, kids can scroll through the different Vines, and they can tap on the screen to hear sounds.
The Vine team did not say whether it planned to release an Android version.
Twitter is just the latest tech comparing angling for our children’s attention. Google recently announced plans to create 12-and-under versions of Chrome, YouTube, and Search. Google’s move was also largely motivated by the fact its employees wanted their kids to use their products, the company told USA Today.
Vine’s new app will make browsing videos easy and fun for children of all ages, and Google’s services for elementary-school students and younger kids will offer a safe way to browse online.
It’s unclear if other tech companies will follow suit, but can you imagine a world with kid-friendly Facebook and Twitter?
Photo via epSos.de/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
