“Go watch the TV or do something else, but let me breath”
Most parents like to get children away to be alone. But do they know what children do? What kind of content are they watching? Is the TV content appropriate? Or do they trust on YouTube? The famous entertainer digital babysitter: parents leaving their children in the corner of a room with an iPad doing the parenting just because they need to get stuff done. If the aim of YouTube Kids is making it more convenient for children to search videos appropriate for them, it means they don’t need parents supervising?
Like a TV, YouTube is not something kids can watch on their own. This is a fun activity to share with their parents and enjoy all together. This is an alternative to children’s TV where they watch first of all children shows as well as cartoons. Malik Ducard, global head of the family and learning YouTube, explains that kids are born as creators now. “Their language since they were born is swipe, tap, pinches. It’s their native second language”.
YouTube Kids is growing with mini YouTubers (kids who have their own channel). They actually feel motivated to be part of it, like Ryan ToysReview, who started in 2015 with no views and five months later increased his followers. His mom supported him full time on the YouTube channel. Now his channel is the most watched in the world.
If your kid tells you he (or she) wants to be a YouTube, it could be a wonderful idea for confidence, imagination, creativity and also to make him feels how valuable is what he has to share with the world. This kind of activities helps him improve the way to communicate, to express himself and interact with others.
However, technology might be a double-edged sword. Improve children’s knowledge in a good way of learning or cut off any type of communication until they lose their mind and will not be able to talk with anyone, like a kid in the corner holding an iPod at any place.
But no one wants young children to deal with inappropriate content. It’s safe to bet YouTube is already the biggest children’s entertainment platform in the world. YouTube has already good clips from television shows like Peppa Pig or Daddy Finger considered the YouTube Kids anthem. How kids interact with online video content?
Right now what is taking aware parents is the advertising that pops up all the time. It might distract kids for a while. Those are strategies helping the company cash in from the sales of toys, apps, junk food and other products.
Currently, YouTube Kids is available in more than 30 countries and has more than 10 million weekly active viewers, according to the Google-owned video platform.
