Published on: September 24, 2024
Japanese animated works (anime) on Crunchyroll may look cartoonish, but don’t let your guard down. The site does host kid-friendly anime, but there’s lots of mature and suggestive shows with scenes of graphic violence, depictions of alcohol/tobacco/drug use, and more. So as a parent, you may be rightfully concerned about whether or not you should allow your child to visit the site.
In this article, I’ll cover the potential risks of Crunchyroll, evaluate its built-in parental controls, and provide practical tips on how to keep your kids safe on the site.
One of my top recommendations is using a parental control app like Qustodio to manage how much time your child spends on the site/app, and to schedule downtimes when Crunchyroll is blocked so your child can focus on doing their homework and get a good night’s rest.
What Are the Risks of Crunchyroll?
- Age-inappropriate content. Crunchyroll hosts a wide array of anime, ranging from family-friendly shows to those with more mature themes like violence, sexual content, and strong language. Most titles on the site are suitable for teens, but younger children can still easily come across shows that aren’t appropriate for their age group. This is because only 18+ content can be filtered out by Cruncyroll’s built-in parental controls, and there is no age verification system in place on the site.
- Addictive nature. Screen addiction is a very real problem, and Crunchyroll, like many streaming platforms, has an autoplay feature that encourages continuous viewing. Combined with the fact that there are thousands of episodes available on the site, kids may find it very hard to log off and end up spending hours glued to the screen, binge-watching an anime series. This can have negative consequences on their sleep, schedule, eye health, academics, and social life.
- Privacy concerns. To use Crunchyroll, users need to create an account. This involves sharing an email address and, potentially, credit card details if you have a premium account. Like most sites, Crunchyroll also records the IP address of users’s devices and uses tracking technologies to remember what your child has watched and interacted with on the website in order to make content recommendations and show them relevant adverts. This personal information may be shared with third parties, putting your child’s privacy at risk.
- Potentially risky ads. The free version of Crunchyroll includes ads that may not be kid-friendly. The ads typically relate to anime or gaming, but there’s a possibility that some may not align with what you consider appropriate for your kid.
- Scams. Some Crunchyroll users have fallen victim to phishing scams in the past. The site itself doesn’t have a comment section or a forum where your child might come across malicious links, but threat actors do send out fake emails with links that appear to be from the platform. These links lead to a fake version of the website that prompts the user to enter their login or payment information and steals it.
- Security issues. In 2017, Crunchyroll experienced a major security breach where a hacker hijacked the site to distribute malware disguised as a desktop app for the service. While the security vulnerabilities that led to this breach have since been addressed, the incident highlights the risks that come with all internet use.
What Age Is Crunchyroll Appropriate For?
Crunchyroll’s Terms of Service require users to be at least 16 years old to create an account. This minimum age reflects the platform’s diverse content, which ranges from kid-friendly shows to anime that depicts graphic violence and nudity.
That said, there are many shows on the platform that are appropriate for younger viewers. My Hero Academia, for example, is rated for ages 14+, and Polar Bear Cafe is rated for children as young as 12 years old.
Ultimately, you’re the best judge of whether or not the platform is appropriate for your child, as you have the best understanding of their level of maturity and whether or not they can be trusted to use the platform responsibly. Some parents may be comfortable permitting younger teens or even tweens to use the site on a parental account with clear ground rules or proper supervision.
How to Keep Your Kids Safe on Crunchyroll
You don’t have to ban Crunchyroll just because there’s some inappropriate content on the site. It’s possible for your child to enjoy watching their favorite anime on the platform safely through a combination of education, supervision, and making use of available tools. Here are some useful tips you can try:
1. Install a Good Quality Parental Control App
A high-quality parental control app like Qustodio can be a huge help in making Crunchyroll safer for your kids. Here’s what a parental control app can do for you:
- Prevent excessive screen time. You can set limits on how much time your child can spend on the Crunchyroll app every day to protect your child’s eye health and help them maintain a healthy balance between their screen time usage and real-life activities.
- Create schedules for Crunchyroll. Set it up so that your child can only access Crunchyroll during certain times of the day (for example, after school) or certain days of the week (like during the weekend only). This ensures that they aren’t binging anime until way past their bedtime or watching shows when they should be doing their homework.
- Monitor your kid’s Crunchyroll usage. Keeping track of how long your child spends on Crunchyroll every day or over the course of a week/month can help you determine if intervention is necessary.
- Block the app/site. If your child isn’t using Crunchyroll responsibly, or you don’t believe the platform is appropriate for them, you can block access to the app and site entirely.
2. Make Use of Crunchyroll’s Built-in Parental Controls
Crunchyroll has a built-in mature content filter that you can turn on in the settings menu. When you toggle off Mature Video Content, your child won’t be able to watch any shows that the platform rates for audiences aged 18+.
To turn off Mature Video Content, follow these simple steps:
- Click your Crunchyroll profile picture in the top right corner of the website.
- Select Settings.
- Toggle the switch next to Mature Video Content. You want it to be grayed out, which means this content is inaccessible to the account in question.
This toggle is protected by the Crunchyroll account’s password, so make sure that your child doesn’t know what it is, or they can easily circumvent this restriction.
3. Check the Age Rating on the Anime Your Child Wants to Watch
Crunchyroll rates every show on the site for ages 12+, 14+, 16+, and 18+. You can find the rating of an anime directly under the show’s name.
Please keep in mind though that Crunchyroll’s content rating system isn’t perfect. There are at least some shows on the site with low age ratings that contain some inappropriate scenes or themes. That said, it can still be a good general guideline for busy parents who don’t have the time to vet every single show their child wants to watch.
4. Install a Reliable Antivirus
Get a good antivirus software for your child’s device to protect them from malware and phishing attempts. Hackers have hijacked the Crunchyroll website in the past and tricked users into downloading malware. Also, scammers sometimes send out phishing links through email to steal users’s login credentials or payment information.
Norton is the best antivirus in 2024. It has a 100% malware detection rate and provides real-time protection, which blocks known phishing pages and removes threats before they can do damage to your device or steal sensitive information.
5. Install a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Crunchyroll collects some personal information about its users — like most online platforms. This includes stuff like your child’s activities on the site and their device’s IP address. If data privacy is important to you, you could consider getting a VPN.
A good VPN encrypts all data sent over a device’s internet connection, which makes it unreadable to third parties, and hides your kid’s device’s IP address. All of this makes it difficult for advertisers to build a data profile of your child.
My favorite VPN in 2024 is ExpressVPN — it has super-fast speeds, so it won’t cause long video load times or buffering on Crunchyroll. It also has top-notch privacy and security features, and is really easy to use.
6. Talk to Your Child
Explain to your kid why they should be careful when clicking links or downloading apps. Tell them to come to you for help if they notice something unusual on the Crunchyroll site (for example, if the site asks them to download an app when it’s never done that before) or if they receive an email from Crunchyroll that asks them to log in or verify their payment details. This will protect them and their devices from phishing attempts and malware.
You should also have a discussion with your child and agree on some ground rules for using Crunchyroll. Establish when they are allowed to watch anime and for how long. Explain to them how these rules are meant to keep them safe and healthy — they’re more likely to follow your rules if they understand where you’re coming from.
Editors' Note: ExpressVPN and this site are in the same ownership group.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Crunchyroll suitable for 10-year-olds?
It depends. The minimum age for having an account on Crunchyroll is 16. This is because there are some shows on Crunchyroll that contain potentially inappropriate content, such as mature themes and graphic violence. That said, some parents may allow their kids to watch anime on their accounts because there are many shows on the platform that are suitable for younger audiences.
If you’re considering letting your 10-year-old on Crunchyroll, you should take some extra steps to keep them safe on the site/app.
Is there anything inappropriate on Crunchyroll?
Yes. Crunchyroll has some 18+ content. It also has content that isn’t rated 18+ but which some parents may consider inappropriate for their child, including mature themes like violence, sexual content, and strong language. If you’re concerned about potentially inappropriate content, I recommend making use of Crunchyroll’s built-in parental controls and checking the age rating of shows that your child wants to watch.
Does Crunchyroll have its own parental controls?
Yes, but they’re pretty basic. There’s a toggle on Crunchyroll that lets you turn on/off mature content. Turning off Mature Video Content only filters out content that’s rated 18+ though, and there may be some shows on the site that aren’t rated 18+ but still contain potentially inappropriate scenes or themes.
Crunchyroll’s built-in parental controls also can’t help with things like screen time addiction. I recommend getting a third-party parental control app to help your child maintain a healthy balance between their virtual and real lives.
How do I use Crunchyroll’s parental controls?
To turn off Mature Video Content on Crunchyroll, follow these 3 simple steps:
- Go to your account settings. You can do this by clicking on your profile picture in the top right and selecting Settings.
- Toggle off Mature Video Content. It’s turned off if the toggle is grayed out.
- Start watching Crunchyroll. That’s it! Your child will no longer be able to watch 18+ content on the site/app.