YouTube Launches Mental Health and Wellbeing Shelves for Teens
A Dedicated Mental Health Resource for Teens
[October 14th, London] Today, YouTube UK announced its latest offering for younger viewers, with new mental health and wellbeing content launching in a dedicated surface built just for teens.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Shelves will provide teenagers searching for common mental health and wellbeing topics with a shelf of videos curated from trusted sources. The videos are designed specifically for teenagers and aim to help them find credible information to answer their questions, tailored to their developmental stage of life.
When searching for common topics related to mental health and wellbeing, such as depression, substance abuse or eating disorders, the shelf will appear – providing credible information from trusted sources designed specifically for teens.
Evidence-Based, Teen-Centric Content
To be eligible for inclusion in the shelf, content needs to be evidence-based, teen-centric and engaging. YouTube worked with organisations from around the world that specialise in providing mental health and wellbeing information for teens to produce these videos.
All have a track record of helping teens to better understand their emotional and mental health, and understand the unique value of reaching teens in spaces like YouTube that they naturally turn to when seeking information.
In the UK, topics covered include eating disorders, substance abuse, self-harm and ADHD, with partners including the Department of Health and Social Care and Mind.
The shelves will also launch globally, including in Germany and France, with localised partners and topics, and will start showing for teen users in the coming weeks.
Expert and Partner Reactions
Announcing the changes, Dr Garth Graham, Director and Global Head of Healthcare at YouTube said:
As a doctor and father of four who has focused my career on the best ways to help people make informed decisions about their health, I’m excited that so many health organizations from around the world recognize the indispensable role that YouTube plays in the life of teens, and how our platform can help reach them with health information when they need it.
Sarah Miles, Head of Information Content at Mind, said:
We’re excited to be partnering with YouTube Health to create a new series of mental health information content tailored for young people. The crisis in young people’s mental health is growing, and with half of all mental health problems starting before the age of 14, it's never been more important to provide young people with accurate, engaging mental health information.
Health Minister Baroness Gillian Merron said:
YouTube is a vital platform for reaching and educating young people and we're delighted to work with them to share accurate, life-saving information about substance abuse and mental health.
This partnership is one of many ways the government is working to support young people's mental health as part of the 10 Year Health Plan. We're investing an extra £688 million in mental health services this year, hiring 8,500 more mental health workers, providing more talking therapies and helping more people get support through the NHS App.
YouTube’s Continued Investment in Teen Wellbeing
YouTube has invested deeply in teen wellbeing over the years, whether through the guide for families on healthy screen habits, or working with the Youth and Families Advisory Committee to develop teen-specific guardrails.
All of this is backed up with industry-leading policies that detail what isn’t allowed on YouTube, and what isn’t eligible to earn ad revenue.
We continuously review those policies to make sure they are keeping pace with the types of content we see on our platform – for example, we recently tightened our advertising policy for content that details or promotes disordered eating behaviours, to prevent this type of content from growing on YouTube.
YouTube is one of the first platforms to offer experiences designed specifically for young people. Our products for youth, YouTube Kids and Supervised Experiences, are developed under guidance from independent experts and reach over 100 million active logged-in and logged-out users every month.
