KEEPING Kids FROM GOING DOWN THE YOUTUBE RABBIT HOLE
Growing up, Saturday morning was my favorite day of the week. I would wake up as early as I could so I could sneak in as many hours of Bobby’s World, Garfield and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes as I could. It was a simple time, when nobody had control of what type of content they could watch and cartoons were for the most part kid friendly and wholesome.
Today is a different story and while we keep the tradition of limiting TV to Saturdays and Sundays in our household, kids these days have way to many options at their fingertips. With Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, Youtube and countless other streaming services, our generation of children have endless hours of brain-cell killing videos to keep them entertained.
I recently left my 7 year old on YouTube unsupervised for a few hours and walked in on a video of a guy stitching his face with a group of teens reacting to the video. It was disturbing and once I had the opportunity to look at the video history it got even more interesting. I truly don’t understand how a child goes from Minecraft videos to Pure Nude Yoga and people sticking their arms up cow’s rectums.
So how do we put a stop to the inevitable Youtube Rabbit Hole?
Ban your Kids from Youtube!
The #1 tip I can give for keeping your kids away from disturbing content is to just shut it down completely.
I have seen so many forums and groups of parents who are trying to figure out the magic formula for limiting screen time. And the answer is, just don’t give them the screen!
Chances are that you didn’t grow up with a tablet or YouTube and I am guessing that you turned out just fine, right?
I originally started letting my son watch YouTube for educational purposes. He would be limited to Science Max and Odd Squad but eventually those interests branched off into brain killing content and I had to consistently tell him to change the program or just shut it off completely.
If You Can’t Ban Them, Supervise Them
Banning kids form the internet is hard to do these days. My son gets homework assignments that require him to watch educational videos on Youtube.
Sometimes if your kiddo has a certain interest, you won’t find a program on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime so we turn to Youtube for the content.
If it comes down to any scenario that involves your eager learner to use the tube, just supervise them the entire time. Don’t be afraid to be annoying and come back every few minutes to make sure they are watching appropriate content.
Set Expectations and Ground Rules
At some point your kid will outsmart you and figure out how to get his/her fix. So it’s extremely important to set ground rules. While there is no magic formula for these ground rules, here are some that I use for my kids.
- No YouTube or TV on school nights
- Only allowed to watch YouTube for 2 hours during the weekend
- Only educational content unless approved by mom & dad
- If you get caught watching something your not supposed to I shut it off and you lose your remaining time for the weekend
Youtube Viewing History
If you happen to be in a situation where you can’t monitor your child, I encourage you to check their viewing history.
On your PC, simply click on the watch history on the left hand menu and scroll down the list. The red bar at the bottom of the thumbnail will indicate how long your child has viewed the content.
It takes a couple more steps on your cell phone but it’s not too complicated.
Go to the Account Menu > Time Watched > Watch History and your there.
Dealing with Youtube at School/Daycare & Summer camps
My son came home one day from summer camp asking if we could listen to a song called “Muffin Time”. I saw the thumbnail and it looked harmless so I played it and immediately regretted it. The song is about a muffin who wants to die. Don’t believe me?
Here is the chorus
Today, virtually every child has a cellphone and you can take a wild guess what app they probably use quite a bit. Sometimes the content your child will be exposed to is out of your control and you can’t do anything about it except ask your kid not to partake.
The only thing you can really do is ask your teacher, school or summer camp director to keep an eye on the content kids are sharing.
But kids are sneaky. I know first-hand from my adolescent days.
Youtube Kids
Another alternative to restricting content is Youtube kids which is essentially a filtered version of Youtube that lets you filter and block content you don’t want your kids watching.
I think it is a good start to making sure your kids don’t go down any rabbit holes but I have read articles that suggest it’s mostly safe but there is a slight chance kids could be exposed violence, nudity & just plain weird stuff. So do your own research and set some good filters.
The only downside it does not work on your PC and only available to download as an app for your Android or IOS.
Moral of the Story
We live in a world where kids get immediate satisfaction in front of a screen. What starts out as an educational experience or temporary babysitter turns into an addictive technology that rots our childerns brains. Furthermore, it exposes them to realities and disturbing content that parents dread and it’s only getting weirder.
Let’s face it, we all found ways to do things were weren’t supposed to growing up. If our parents knew what were were exposed too, what would be flushed red in the face for hours.
Kids are also very tech savvy these days and will find a way to get there fix and make sure they don’t get caught.
So, keep an eye on those content hungry kids of yours and if you can’t kick them off of Youtube, make sure you annoy the heck out of them and let them know you have a special set of eyes on them.
Good luck out there!
