Vine Kids: New Video-Sharing App Promises Friendlier Content

The popular video-sharing app Vine has unveiled a kid-friendly version of its software, according to a new report from The Guardian. Known as Vine Kids, the app aims to filter out inappropriate content, making it more suitable for children. The social media tool became the subject of controversy recently when news began to surface of teens being bullied while onlookers document the footage using Vine. The new kids version of the app will ensure that such content will not be viewed by children.

While this may not be the sole reason for the new app, a representative from the company said that they want to bring the Vine experience to everyone in the household.

We’ve seen for ourselves – and heard from parents, siblings and others – that kids love Vine…So, we built Vine Kids, a simple new app that gives young children a fun way to watch Vines through adorable animated characters, kids can watch videos that are appropriate for a young audience.

The timing for the new app may not be a coincidence as more and more parents and academics debate children’s frequent use of mobile phones and tablets in the digital age. Research has even been looking into whether young kid’s screen habits could be harming their social-emotional development.

According to a report on Digital Spy, the idea for Vine Kids came about when an employee noticed his 2-year-old daughter loved using the app and felt a more kid-friendly equivalent of Vine should be made available.

The idea came about during an office conversation in early January. One of my colleagues was talking about how much his two-year-old daughter loves Vine – he said he wished there was a separate app she could use to more easily watch posts that are appropriate for kids

Currently Vine Kids is only available on Apple’s iPhone. The app works by hand-picking a selection of six-second clips chosen from the Vine community. Swiping the device’s screen will show a new clip and can be played by tapping. Amongst content that contains adult material, such as swearing, videos of twerking will also be made unavailable on the new app.

Vine was founded in June, 2012 and acquired by the microblogging site Twitter just before the app launched in October, 2012. The software allows users to share and watch short, recorded clips which last a total of six seconds.

At the moment there doesn’t appear to be any word on when Vine Kids will be coming to other devices and platforms.