Spotify is taking a significant step towards enhanced parental control by piloting “managed accounts” for children under 13, available to select Family plan users in Denmark, New Zealand, and Sweden. This new feature, announced on Friday, allows parents to exert more control over what their young listeners can access on the platform.
The managed accounts feature will enable parents to manage their child’s Spotify experience directly from their Family plan. Parents can restrict access to explicit content, including videos and Canvas videos—the looping visuals that accompany songs. Additionally, parents will have the ability to decide which artists or tracks their child can play, offering a more tailored listening experience without resorting to the Spotify Kids app, which is more restrictive.
This move by Spotify aligns with broader industry trends, as major tech companies like TikTok, Meta, Snap, and YouTube have recently introduced similar parental control features. The push for such controls is partly driven by increasing regulatory pressure on Big Tech to improve child safety online. Streaming platforms such as Netflix, Max, and Hulu have also implemented parental controls, reflecting a growing awareness of the need for content moderation for younger audiences.
Spotify’s new managed accounts feature will help parents who share their accounts with their children by creating separate recommendations for each account under the Family plan. This separation will ensure that parents’ music preferences do not mix with their children’s, leading to more accurate end-of-year Wrapped results.
To access this new feature, parents can visit the Accounts page in the Spotify app and select the option to “Add a listener aged under 13.” They will then follow the instructions to customize the controls according to their preferences.
