Spotify

Music, podcasts and audiobooks in one app. The explicit filter everyone knows about covers the music and nothing else.

Menu names shift between software versions and between phone makers. If a name here does not match what you see, look for something close by rather than assuming the setting is gone.

1. 1

   Work out which of the two setups you need

   Worth two minutes because the gap between them is wide. A managed account is a genuine parental control: you hold a PIN, the child cannot undo it, and podcasts and audiobooks are not there at all. An ordinary account with the filter switched on is a request, and your child can decline it later from their own settings screen. There is no managed account for a teenager, so at 13 you move from one to the other whether you want to or not.

   1. Under 13: set up a managed account. Everything below is then mostly confirming.
   2. 13 and over: they get an ordinary account, and you work through the settings with them.
   3. Either way, do it from your own account first if you are on a Family plan.

   Recommended by age

   Under 7	Managed account
   7–11	Managed account
   11–12	Managed account
   13–15	Ordinary account, settings agreed together
   16–17	Ordinary account, mostly their call

   Be straight with yourself about the 13 to 17 years. Apart from video on a Family plan, there is no Spotify setting a teenager cannot reverse. That is not a reason to skip the settings, it is a reason to set them with your child rather than behind them.

2. 2

   Create the managed account

   This is the step that does the real work. A new managed account starts with explicit content already blocked, and video and Canvas already off. The profile is private and cannot be searched or found by other people, there is no way to buy anything, and Spotify's social features including Messages and Jam are not available. You are not assembling protection setting by setting, you are choosing an account type that arrives with it.

   Profile picture → Settings and privacy → Parental controls → Create a managed account

   1. Open Spotify signed in as yourself, tap your profile picture, then Settings and privacy.
   2. Tap Parental controls, then Create next to Create a managed account.
   3. Give parental consent, choose a parental controls PIN, and enter your child's name and date of birth.
   4. Set the parental controls, then log in to the managed account on their device.
   5. You can also do all of this from spotify.com/account under Parental controls.

   Recommended by age

   Under 7	Yes, and it is the whole answer at this age
   7–11	Yes
   11–12	Yes, and expect a conversation about it

   An account that plays music only. No podcasts, no audiobooks, no video, no purchases, and a profile nobody can search for.

   It runs on the free tier too, with ads. Premium Family removes the ads and gives the managed account the Premium features. Note that it lasts a long time: a young listener graduates to a self-managed account at 18, not 13, and keeps their playlists, saved music, recommendations and their place on the plan.

   Who holds this: You set this from your own account, and your child cannot change it back.

   Already done this?

   If they already have an ordinary Spotify account, you can convert it rather than start again, but do it with them in the room. Spotify's warning is that the young listener will immediately lose access to some content and features, and that happens the moment you convert. So the podcasts they follow and anything else outside music will go without notice. We could not confirm from Spotify's pages whether converting back is possible, so treat it as a decision rather than an experiment.

3. 3

   Set the parental controls PIN, and put it somewhere you will find it

   The PIN is the difference between a setting and a control. It is also what gets asked for when someone switches between accounts on a shared device, which is the moment it usually matters, because the shared device is the family tablet or the kitchen speaker.

   Settings and privacy → Parental controls → Change PIN

   1. Choose it during setup, or change it later at Settings and privacy, Parental controls, Change PIN.
   2. Do not use the same four digits as the device unlock code, which your child already knows.
   3. Write it down somewhere that is not the device it protects.

   Who holds this: You set this from your own account, and your child cannot change it back.

4. 4

   Turn off explicit content, and know what it does not reach

   This is the setting every article about Spotify tells you to flip, and it does work, on songs. Tagged tracks go grey, will not play, and get skipped automatically. What almost nobody mentions is the boundary. Spotify's own guidance for parents says the filter covers songs tagged explicit by creators and rightsholders, and does not cover podcasts, audiobooks, or videos tagged 18+. Podcasts are where most of the strong language on Spotify actually lives, and they are untouched by this switch.

   Settings and privacy → Content and display → Allow Explicit Content

   1. On phone or tablet: Settings and privacy, Content and display, then switch off Allow Explicit Content.
   2. On desktop: Settings, Explicit Content, then switch off Allow playback of explicit-rated content.
   3. On a managed account this is already on, so just confirm it.
   4. Then decide separately what you are doing about podcasts and audiobooks, because this does nothing to them.

   Recommended by age

   13–15	Off, agreed together
   16–17	Their call, but have the conversation

   Explicit-tagged songs go grey, will not play, and are skipped automatically.

   On an ordinary account this lives in your child's own settings, so it is theirs to switch back on. There is no parent-side lock for it outside a managed account.

   Who holds this: This lives in your child's own settings, so they can change it back. There is no parent-side lock for it.

5. 5

   Turn off video and Canvas

   The other half of what the person asking about this usually means. Spotify is not audio-only any more: there are music videos, and there is Canvas, the short looping visual that plays behind a track. Neither is touched by the explicit filter. On a Family plan this is the one control a parent genuinely holds over a teenager's account, because Spotify extended it in April 2026 from under-13s to any account on the plan.

   Settings and privacy → Content and display → Videos and Canvas

   1. On phone or tablet: Settings and privacy, Content and display, then switch off what you want under Videos and Canvas.
   2. On the web player: profile picture, Settings, then the same section.
   3. On a Family plan, do it from your own account. Spotify's wording: Family plan managers can turn on or off video settings for plan members.
   4. On a managed account both are already off.

   Recommended by age

   13–15	Off, and it is a control you can actually keep
   16–17	Worth offering rather than imposing

   The Family plan is the exception worth knowing about. Off a Family plan this is your child's own setting and theirs to switch back. On one, you set it from your account and it holds.

   Who holds this: This lives in your child's own settings, so they can change it back. There is no parent-side lock for it.

6. 6

   Block particular artists or songs

   Blunt, and the only tool that reaches something the explicit tag missed. Plenty of songs are not tagged explicit and are still not what you want a nine-year-old singing at school. This is where you deal with the specific one rather than arguing about the category.

   Settings and privacy → Parental controls

   1. From the parental controls page, turn off playback of specific tracks and artists.
   2. Add them as they come up rather than trying to think of them in advance.
   3. Ask your child what they are listening to first. A list built without them will be both wrong and resented.

   Who holds this: You set this from your own account, and your child cannot change it back.

7. 7

   Cover the bit Spotify will not

   Two things sit outside anything Spotify offers. Podcasts and audiobooks on an ordinary account, which no filter reaches. And time, which Spotify has no control for at all. Both are device-level jobs.

   1. iPhone and iPad: Settings, Screen Time, App Limits for time. Content & Privacy Restrictions for the app itself.
   2. Android and Chromebook: Family Link, Controls, Daily limit.
   3. If podcasts are the real worry and they are 13 or over, a managed account is not available to you, so this is a conversation rather than a setting.

Menus move. If something on screen does not match these steps, check the official link above.