How to Block YouTube Shorts

Blocking YouTube Shorts means using workarounds to keep the short-video feed away from your kid, because if you're searching for how to disable YouTube Shorts, here's the uncomfortable truth: YouTube does not offer an official off switch. There is no setting, no toggle, no parental control inside YouTube that permanently removes Shorts. Everything available to you is a partial workaround — and most of them quietly undo themselves.

Quick answer: You cannot fully disable YouTube Shorts on a normal YouTube account. You can temporarily hide the Shorts shelf for about 30 days, tell the algorithm "not interested," or switch to YouTube Kids, which doesn't have the same Shorts feed. The only complete fix is to change where your kid watches: an allowlist viewer like UTubeParents shows only full-length videos from channels you approve, so Shorts never appear at all.

Why doesn't YouTube let you turn off Shorts?

Shorts are YouTube's answer to TikTok, and they drive enormous watch time. Every Short leads to another Short, which means more minutes on the platform and more ads served. YouTube has little incentive to hand parents a switch that turns that engine off.

That's why every "disable Shorts" setting you'll find in the app is temporary, per-video, or per-channel. None of them removes the Shorts tab from the bottom of the app. None of them survives long-term. Knowing this up front saves you hours of hunting through menus for a setting that doesn't exist.

Why are YouTube Shorts a problem for kids?

Shorts are built as an autoplay loop. One video ends, the next starts instantly, and a swipe delivers a fresh hit. There's no natural stopping point — no end of an episode, no "video finished" screen, no moment where a kid's brain gets a cue to stop.

A 20-minute science video has a beginning and an end. A Shorts session has neither. Kids can burn an hour swiping without watching anything they'd even remember. Parents consistently report the same pattern: kids come away from Shorts sessions wired, cranky, and asking for more.

There's also a content problem. The Shorts feed is driven by an algorithm optimizing for engagement, not appropriateness. Even with Restricted Mode on, edgy content, rage bait, and junk trends slip into kid feeds constantly. You can't preview an infinite feed.

How do I hide the Shorts shelf in the YouTube app?

This is the closest thing YouTube offers to a native option, and it's temporary by design.

1. Open the YouTube app or youtube.com and go to the Home feed.
2. Find the Shorts shelf (the row of vertical video thumbnails).
3. Tap the three-dot menu or the X on the shelf.
4. Choose the option to hide the shelf.

YouTube tells you plainly what happens next: the shelf comes back after about 30 days. The Shorts tab at the bottom of the app never goes away at all, so a kid who knows where to tap is one touch from the feed the entire time. This is a speed bump, not a wall.

Does "Not interested" or "Don't recommend channel" stop Shorts?

Sort of, one video at a time. On any Short, you can tap the three-dot menu and choose "Not interested" or "Don't recommend channel." The algorithm will show less of that specific content or creator.

The problem is scale. You're playing whack-a-mole against an infinite feed. Block one prank channel and three near-identical ones take its place. This tool was built to tune recommendations for adult viewers, not to protect kids — and your kid can undo your signals just by watching what the algorithm serves next.

Pausing watch history helps a little more: with history off, YouTube's home feed goes mostly blank and recommendations thin out. But the Shorts tab still works, and search still works. It reduces the pull; it doesn't remove it.

Can I block Shorts in a web browser?

On a desktop computer, yes, mostly. Watching YouTube in a browser instead of the app gives you options the app doesn't: you can ignore the Shorts section, and browser extensions exist that hide Shorts shelves and redirect Shorts links to the normal player.

The catch is that kids don't watch on desktops. They watch on tablets, phones, and TVs, where the YouTube app rules and extensions don't exist. An extension also only lasts as long as it's installed — one uninstall, one new device, or one browser update and you're back to square one. If you want a fuller picture of locking down the platform itself, see our guide on how to restrict YouTube for kids.

Does YouTube Kids have Shorts?

YouTube Kids doesn't have a Shorts tab or the swipe-forever feed in the same form as the main app. Short-form videos exist in its catalog, but there's no dedicated infinite-scroll experience built around them. For toddlers and preschoolers, that makes YouTube Kids a reasonable option.

The tradeoff is the catalog. YouTube Kids filters by algorithm, its library skews young, and most kids age out of it by 7 or 8 — right around when they start asking for "real YouTube," which is where the Shorts problem lives. It solves the feed format for little kids but doesn't help once your kid outgrows the app.

Which Shorts workaround actually lasts?

Here's how the realistic options stack up.

Notice the pattern in the first five rows: everything inside YouTube's own ecosystem either expires, requires constant upkeep, or only works on devices kids don't use. That's not an accident. For the same reason, Google's supervised accounts and Family Link can limit the YouTube app but include no Shorts toggle either — we cover what those tools can and can't do in our YouTube parental controls guide.

How does an allowlist viewer remove Shorts completely?

Instead of fighting YouTube's interface, you can change where your kid watches. UTubeParents is a free (early access) kid-safe YouTube viewer built around a simple idea: you approve specific channels, and your kid can watch only those channels — nothing else.

Shorts are handled by design, not by a setting that can expire. Channel pages in UTubeParents show only full-length uploads. Shorts never enter kid feeds, because there is no algorithmic feed to enter. Videos still play through the official YouTube embed, so your kid watches the same creators — minus the swipe loop.

Because the whole environment is parent-controlled, the other YouTube problems get solved in the same move:

• Channel allowlist: kids can be locked to only the channels you approve. No recommendations, no rabbit holes.
• Screen-time limits: per-child daily minutes, enforced server-side. When time is up, the player stops. No negotiating with the tablet.
• Watch history: see everything your kid watched, with one-tap blocking for anything you don't like.
• PIN-locked kid mode: kids can't back out into regular YouTube or change their own settings.
• No comments: comment sections never load. If you've read about why that matters, see our guide on turning off YouTube comments.

To be clear about the limits: UTubeParents controls what happens inside UTubeParents. If your kid can still open the regular YouTube app on their device, Shorts are still there. The play is to make UTubeParents the way your kid watches YouTube, and use your device's app restrictions to close the back door.

How do I set this up for my kid?

1. Create a free parent account — Get started free.
2. Add your kid and approve the channels they already love.
3. Set a daily time limit if you want one.
4. Put UTubeParents on their device's home screen and lock kid mode with your PIN.
5. Restrict or remove the regular YouTube app on their device.

Setup takes a few minutes. After that there's nothing to re-hide every 30 days and no algorithm to argue with.

Bottom line: There is no real way to disable YouTube Shorts inside YouTube — only temporary hides and recommendation tweaks that don't stick. If you just need to take the edge off, hide the shelf and pause watch history, and plan to redo it monthly. If you want Shorts genuinely gone, move your kid's watching to an allowlist viewer: UTubeParents shows only full-length videos from channels you approve, so the swipe loop simply isn't there.