In my experience, the allure of YouTube proper typically begins around age 8. YouTube Kids and PBS kids just aren’t as appealing, and there will be a point when your children want to shift.
In the past few years YouTube has implemented stringent policies against inappropriate content. These policies demonetize vulgar language, self-harm, nudity, violent content, and many other restrictions you can view with a quick google search.
Content creators that break these policies are demonetized, which produces a strong financial motive to ‘get with the program’ and produce family friendly content. And it’s worked. While crazy content still exists on YouTube, the auto recommendation algorithms are significantly less likely to direct viewers there.
Despite YouTube not being not as dangerous as it was for children, I suggest establishing ground rules for what videos are deemed inappropriate. In our family’s case it was cursing, violent scenes, or graphical imagery. It’s your child, you get to decide what’s appropriate.
For example, my daughter went through a stage where she was obsessed with SirenHead videos. While they were creepy, they did not break the rules we defined so she could watch them. This helped her get over her fear of monsters.
Consider subscribing to YouTube Premium, which eliminates the ads which are not always subjected to the same stringent rules as regular content. This, along with using YouTube mature filters will help prevent unwanted material showing up.
Under your YouTube account, you can create additional profiles. It’s easy to do, and lets you review your child’s viewing history – something you should do periodically. You don’t need to comb through every video – just keep an eye out for any suspicious titles or thumbnails.
If you stumble upon an inappropriate video, use it as a teaching moment. With my kids, I would call the child into my office and show them the video. I would then ask them why it was inappropriate.
If they watched the video to the end I would take away their tablet for a day. If they clicked off the video – which you can see by how far the progress meter went – they were rewarded for seeing an inappropriate video and clicking off of it.
Tik-Tok is a video platform focusing on highly engaging short videos. My children never got into Tik-Tok, but there are parental safety features for children under 13 and I suggest using them. Tik Tok is now limiting users to 60 minutes watch time if they are under 18.
Tik-Tok also allows parents to view history, but given the nature of the platform it’s considerably harder to review them. If my tweens wanted to watch Tik-Tok, I would have them watch it in the same room as me so I could hear what they were watching until I felt comfortable with it.
Maybe parents with older teens using Tik-Tok would be willing to write some advice for us.
Next week I’ll write about cell phones.