Twitter has launched a new version of its Vine video-sharing app aimed at children, promising to filter out inappropriate content.



Vine Kids has launched initially for Apple’s iPhone, and will offer a feed of “hand-selected” six-second looping videos from Vine’s community.

That means no swearing, twerking or other forms of adult content, and the addition of a group of animated characters to host the app.

“We’ve seen for ourselves – and heard from parents, siblings and others – that kids love Vine,” wrote Vine’s Carolyn Penner in a blog post announcing the new app, which was developed by two staff during the company’s “Hack Week”, when employees work on sideline projects.

“The idea came about during an office conversation in early January. One of my colleagues was talking about how much his two-year-old daughter loves Vine – he said he wished there was a separate app she could use to more easily watch posts that are appropriate for kids,” explained Penner.

At the time of writing, the clips chosen for the app are heavy on the cats and dogs, with singing eggs, Elmo from Sesame Street, animated aliens and a piano-playing hedgehog also making an appearance.

The app’s launch follows a year of growth for the main Vine app, which Twitter launched in January 2013 shortly after buying its developer, a startup also called Vine.

In August 2014, Vine said that its videos were watched by more than 100 million people a month across its app and the web, while those videos racked up 347.2bn “loops” – individual plays – in the last nine months of 2014 alone.

Vine Kids’ launch comes at a time of growing debate about children’s use of smartphones and tablets, however.

A new study by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine has raised new questions about whether very young children’s screen habits could harm their social-emotional development, as well as other skills.

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