Before having kids, I was one of those “mommy critics” who swore over not letting my child sit and be glued to the screen watching videos or playing games. But years later, I learned that quality work-family life balance is quite challenging to achieve. The Internet has played a huge contribution to my parenting – most credits to YouTube.
I am one of those parents with a kid so obsessed watching other kids on Youtube – anything that a “digitod” would never miss. (I’m one of those who is guilty over letting the screen babysit so that I could take some moments to either nap or use the toilet in peace.)
But what’s so attractive with these videos? Forget about the nursery rhymes with the catchiest animations because the competing videos of unboxing surprise toys are even more exciting! According to Jocelyn Brewer, a psychologist, in an article on Kidspot, “Children are highly engaged, interested in and passionate about these videos because they see a sense of themselves being represented.”
(“My son is obsessed with watching other kids on YouTube”).
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In our case, YouTube has greatly contributed to my kid’s communication skills development and has encouraged her to discover her own talents.
Although it has its benefits, being cautious is still highly recommended as it poses many potential risks to our kids’ well-being including screen addiction and ‘accidental media usage’ (when young viewers stumble upon inappropriate content).
YouTube is actually intended for users who are at least 13 due to some content restrictions but in the recent years, Google has added parental controls that can limit materials which are flagged as inappropriate by the YouTube community.
YouTube’s home page would normally show video suggestions, and channel recommendations based on recently watched videos and keyword searches. I try not to watch videos that are not kid-friendly for this reason since my kid watches either on my phone or my computer.
Yet no matter how careful we are, sometimes internet glitch cannot be avoided. It would be best that we monitor our kids’ YouTube usage from time to time and there are many ways to do that.
Here are some tips to help you strategize your child’s YouTube usage:
1. CLEAR or PAUSE your WATCH and SEARCH HISTORY to prevent too many unwanted video suggestions.
2. Manage your channel recommendations. When you see channel recommendations that you don’t want your kid to see, you can click on the x button meaning you are not interested to see such kind of videos.
3. Check your subscriptions. I have found out that my kid has accidentally subscribed to channels other than my selections so make sure to double check and monitor your list from time to time.
It would be best to sit with your child and choose subscription together. You can also create a playlist and add videos to ‘watch later’ to customize the programming schedule of content your kids will be exposed to.
4. Examine your watch later list. Your child might have accidentally clicked on some videos to watch later without you knowing. If that happens, you can always opt to remove such unwanted videos from your list.
5. Turn ON the RESTRICTED MODE.
(Yes, my kid is also RYAN’s number 1 fan like yours!)
6. And if that AUTOPLAY is somewhat bothersome, you can choose to turn it OFF.
7. Check viewing statistics and use the “remind me to take a break” feature.
There’s also a YouTube app for kids that you can download, though I have not yet tried it yet. If you did, please share your review in the comment section below. Leave some suggestions if I have forgotten some points to include here, that would always come in handy.
PS. Sorry Adam, but I need to reject you for the time being.
I would agree that it is not easy to ensure that your children are not watching unsuitable content on YouTube.
As you say, so many children are obsessed with YouTube videos, and it really is essential to monitor what they are watching, and to use parental controls. I do think that you are very wise to be present when they are watching, and also to check the screen history regularly, because as you also say, it is just too easy to subscribe to channels, some of which may not be age appropriate for your children.
Children can learn so much online so long as parents do their very best to ensure that they are learning the right things! Your advice is really helpful to all parents, many thanks.
Chrissie 🙂
It’s interesting to get an honest view, you can choose to be very controlling in what kids have access to, but believe me, if they are intent on something they will find a way around it. I have taken the stance of just being very open about it and at the same time let the kids know that i can see everything that they have been up to! This is quite powerful…
I do have my internet provider’s child protection turned on, and this is also the case for their mobile data plan – so this will limit things to some extent. Mostly I have created child accounts for everything my children use, therefore they don’t get to see my own searches or views – there is absolutely no reason for your kids to be using your account on youtube to watch stuff – get them their own account and make sure you log out after use, this way it is all enforced.
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This is a very interesting piece and helpful to all parents and those who aspire to become parents in the near future. You tube is very good and educative. Despite its usefulness, we must not allow our children to be addicted to it. We must also control and monitor the contents are children are exposed to. The tips mentioned above will be very helpful in controlling the you tube contents that our kids can watch.
I have not yet tried the YouTube app for children but knowing that such exists I think that will be very okay for our children though I am yet to get married hahaha . No matter how you want your child to use the YouTube they might still stumble on a video that is not good for children because adds can pop up while they watch. Therefore I recommend the YouTube app for children.
These are great tips. My own daughter is grown but I have (gulp) volunteered to have my niece spend the summer with us. I will definitely need to make some changes and add protections to my accounts.
Thank you also for the information on turning auto play off. It drives me crazy and I never really thought to look for a way to turn it off.
This post is really relevant and helpful, nearly all parents uses YouTube and love their children watch videos online ranging from children shows, to talent hunts, etc but not all parents have the power over this tools to prevent their children from watching the unwanted but nonetheless this is a great guild to help parents protect their kids. Thanks, this was really helpful
This was a wonderful approach to a subject that is very important in these days of kids having access to the internet from a young age. When I was raising my two girls, the worst we had to deal with was the private telephone lines that they wanted in their bedrooms (they did not get these, although they complained all the other kids had them).
Most certainly the tips you mention are not hard to put in place or check on regularly, and I do think it is a good idea to use them. I now have grandchildren (6 total) and when they come to our house, we do place controls on what they can access through the devices we have connected to the internet.
I enjoyed the post and have passed it on to my daughters, who are with the grandchildren most of the time. I am sure that they will look through this to see what additional steps they may need to take to protect the kids. These days there is just so much out there that the kids do not need to see or should not see.
Thanks for an entertaining and useful post!