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Step 1. Delete YouTube or YouTube Kids Step 2. Install PBS Kids and Duck Duck Moose Do not let any un-curated automagic near kids. Its not worth the headache!

freehunter 8y ago
I say this as someone who is not a parent, but it amazes me the things parents let their kids do. I cringe when I see my siblings give their kids their $600 phones to play with when they're still in the age where "throw something on the floor and make an adult pick it up" is the most fun game you can play. But that's just a piece of property... just putting on YouTube and letting kids explore the Internet has potential to be far worse. I know the fucked up things I saw on the Internet as a kid, and I know it hasn't gotten any better since then. YouTube is not a safe space and it blows my mind that otherwise responsible adults treat it as such. Again I'm not a parent so maybe I can't understand it through that lens, but from an outsider's view it's awful. There's just so many hours of misery on YouTube that even adults don't need to see.
- bscphil 8y ago
  100% agree with you. The problem is not just that parents are setting their kids in front of a wide open medium filled with abusive content, it's that they're letting their kids watch hours upon hours of mindless entertainment in the first place. I realize this is kind of a third rail at the moment, but hear me out. The fact is that parents got by for thousands of years without having electronic child sitting devices. The time children waste on glowing screens could be more productively spent learning (remember books?), socializing with their peers, or enjoying healthy exercise. If a child absolutely has to have an hour a day in front of a screen, at the least give them something worthwhile like Mr. Rogers' reruns to watch. Who knows what the long term effects of 3 hours of the same nursery rhyme a day will have on their mental health. At the very least I think extreme caution is warranted; it's easier to let the screens do the baby-sitting, but raising a kid has never been easy.
  - freehunter 8y ago
    I say this with absolutely zero judgement on the parents, but back then parenting was a full time job, and no one parented alone. These days parents want to keep their existing work and social schedule, and again I say this with zero judgement, they bring their kids into social situations that previous generations of parents maybe wouldn't have. To maintain the appropriate social atmosphere, virtually sedating the kids might be necessary. It's like an off-switch, or a babysitter that only costs $8.99/mo. And then, this time with a little bit of judgement on the parents, I see kids at sports games watching Netflix, or I hear my sister talking about her kids watching YouTube with headphones in the car on a roadtrip, and I think, maybe the kids should be learning the value of the experience they're missing instead of disappearing into a fantasy world before boredom has any chance. Netflix and YouTube might be just a little bit too easy of a solution.
    - crooked-v 8y ago
      > These days parents want to keep their existing work I would say for most it's more like "these parents have to keep their existing work", given how housing costs have increased far faster than lower-class and lower-middle-class wages. Being a stay-at-home parent isn't really a viable choice if you need two incomes to afford a place to live. > I see kids at sports games watching Netflix, or I hear my sister talking about her kids watching YouTube with headphones in the car on a roadtrip Would you react the same if it was a book instead?
      - freehunter 8y ago
        >Would you react the same if it was a book instead? Yes. It's an experience that is meant to be actually experienced, not ignored for fantasy. Sports is entertainment already, if you're distracting yourself from a distraction you paid to be at, you should have stayed at home. Likewise on a road trip, there is so much other social activity you can do without putting children in a fantasy bubble. At least with a book, though, you can engage the kid or have them read aloud to you.
        8y ago

freehunter 8y ago

I say this as someone who is not a parent, but it amazes me the things parents let their kids do. I cringe when I see my siblings give their kids their $600 phones to play with when they're still in the age where "throw something on the floor and make an adult pick it up" is the most fun game you can play. But that's just a piece of property... just putting on YouTube and letting kids explore the Internet has potential to be far worse. I know the fucked up things I saw on the Internet as a kid, and I know it hasn't gotten any better since then. YouTube is not a safe space and it blows my mind that otherwise responsible adults treat it as such. Again I'm not a parent so maybe I can't understand it through that lens, but from an outsider's view it's awful. There's just so many hours of misery on YouTube that even adults don't need to see.

bscphil 8y ago
100% agree with you. The problem is not just that parents are setting their kids in front of a wide open medium filled with abusive content, it's that they're letting their kids watch hours upon hours of mindless entertainment in the first place. I realize this is kind of a third rail at the moment, but hear me out. The fact is that parents got by for thousands of years without having electronic child sitting devices. The time children waste on glowing screens could be more productively spent learning (remember books?), socializing with their peers, or enjoying healthy exercise. If a child absolutely has to have an hour a day in front of a screen, at the least give them something worthwhile like Mr. Rogers' reruns to watch. Who knows what the long term effects of 3 hours of the same nursery rhyme a day will have on their mental health. At the very least I think extreme caution is warranted; it's easier to let the screens do the baby-sitting, but raising a kid has never been easy.
- freehunter 8y ago
  I say this with absolutely zero judgement on the parents, but back then parenting was a full time job, and no one parented alone. These days parents want to keep their existing work and social schedule, and again I say this with zero judgement, they bring their kids into social situations that previous generations of parents maybe wouldn't have. To maintain the appropriate social atmosphere, virtually sedating the kids might be necessary. It's like an off-switch, or a babysitter that only costs $8.99/mo. And then, this time with a little bit of judgement on the parents, I see kids at sports games watching Netflix, or I hear my sister talking about her kids watching YouTube with headphones in the car on a roadtrip, and I think, maybe the kids should be learning the value of the experience they're missing instead of disappearing into a fantasy world before boredom has any chance. Netflix and YouTube might be just a little bit too easy of a solution.
  - crooked-v 8y ago
    > These days parents want to keep their existing work I would say for most it's more like "these parents have to keep their existing work", given how housing costs have increased far faster than lower-class and lower-middle-class wages. Being a stay-at-home parent isn't really a viable choice if you need two incomes to afford a place to live. > I see kids at sports games watching Netflix, or I hear my sister talking about her kids watching YouTube with headphones in the car on a roadtrip Would you react the same if it was a book instead?
    - freehunter 8y ago
      >Would you react the same if it was a book instead? Yes. It's an experience that is meant to be actually experienced, not ignored for fantasy. Sports is entertainment already, if you're distracting yourself from a distraction you paid to be at, you should have stayed at home. Likewise on a road trip, there is so much other social activity you can do without putting children in a fantasy bubble. At least with a book, though, you can engage the kid or have them read aloud to you.
      - 8y ago