YouTube Kids Is Being Disabled For Users In Unsupported Regions

• YouTube Kids is getting disabled for users in certain regions.
• The app just disappears from the app drawer.
• Currently, there are no responses from YouTube and Google.

There have been a lot of various reports today from users who are noticing that their YouTube Kids app has disappeared from their device. According to these reports, some users have sideloaded their app while others had installed it regularly through the Play Store but those who find themselves in the officially unsupported areas are unable to find the app on their device.

Rita El Khoury, from Lebanon, explains that she did an experiment by installing YouTube Kids apk from the APK Mirror on her Nokia 7 Plus, running Android 8.1 Oreo and without a SIM card. Rita says that the app works fine for 30 minutes and then just disappears from the app drawer while the phone is idle. It can't be found on the Disabled apps section, nor anywhere else on the device.

It appears that if you have a Play Store account registered in a country that is not officially supported by YouTube, this will most likely happen. At first it appears to be a bug, however, all the indications suggest that YouTube is doing this on purpose.

If this happens to be true then, in theory, you could be flying from the US to the unsupported region and the app on your kids' favorite device could just disappear as you enter that region. It also begs the question why would YouTube Kids restrict children from certain countries to use their app?

Everyone agrees that we are living in the day and age where the Internet is being used to connect people globally, and kids as the most sensitive group of users shouldn't experience limitations like this.

So far there haven't been any responses from either Google or YouTube regarding this issue.