YouTube Now Allows You to Turn Off Shorts with Zero-Minute Limit
- Martina
- 23 April 2026, Thursday
Avoiding short-form content seems like an impossible mission these days. Yet YouTube, perhaps the first social media platform, has introduced new measures to make this achievable, with a zero-minute time limit on Shorts.
YouTube Short Zero-Minute Limit: Combating Negative Social Media Impact
YouTube first updated its time-management options in October 2025 – and later expanded them in January 2026 – allowing users to set a minimum time limit for Shorts at 15 minutes. While seemingly an improvement, this time-management option is of little help, particularly for parents seeking to better control the content their children watch.
For a while now, there’s been widespread concern about how short-form content and social media in general can affect the human brain. The conversation has been, in particular, directed toward children and potential preventive efforts to protect them from the negative impact of such content.
Notably, the Australian government took a significant step in December 2025, passing legislation that bans social media for children under 16. In practice, anyone younger than 16 years old in Australia can’t create new accounts on major social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube – and existing profiles have been deactivated. The ban is the first of its kind and has been closely monitored by other countries.
YouTube’s zero-minute time limit on Shorts may be a response to the heated discourse about social media’s impact. According to the update, users can remove Shorts completely from their YouTube app on both Android and iOS.
“The zero-minute feature is now live for all parents, and is currently being rolled out to everyone,” said YouTube spokesperson Makenzie Spiller.
This essentially means that while children might be the target audience, the zero-minute limit is available to all users regardless of age (including those with a regular “adult” account). This will indeed be beneficial for anyone who wants to cut down their Shorts watching time.
How to Set a Shorts Feed Limit
Sign in to your YouTube app on Android or iOS.
Tap the You tab, then go to Settings.
Select Time Management.
Tap Shorts feed limit to choose from a list of time limits, including the option to set it to zero.
Select your time limit.
Martina is a Berlin-based music writer and digital content specialist. She started playing the violin at age six and spent ten years immersed in classical music. Today, she writes about all things music, with a particular interest in the complexities of the music business, streaming, and artist fairness.
