quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:
The "toy review" videos, while not suicide instructions, are not "brain food." My son isn't allowed to watch those, any unboxing or magic egg videos, no baby shark shit, no daddy finger shit, actually at this point nothing on Youtube.

There are a number of great kids shows on Netflix and Amazon, as well as PBS kids. These are all professionally produced and contain no disturbing content that I have yet detected.

Story Bots, Stinky and Dirty, Dino Dana, Word Girl, these are all good shows.

I would encourage you to not let your kid sit and watch toy videos, they are only learning consumerism. Also, the amount of stolen and manipulated content on Youtube is ridiculous, and frankly I don't trust it at all to be shown to children.

Absolutely hear where you’re coming from and agree to an extent, esp regarding the consumerism. Ryan’s mom does a bit of educating, turns it into games, multiple choice questions, songs, and I’ll watch with him to see if the info is accurate. He loves storybots (I wish they had more seasons), magic school bus,and word girl as well as others. He did wander onto another YouTube site once where the kids and parents didn’t have the healthiest relationship, and his dad caught him on it, and kaboshed it right away.

You tube is out there. So is the internet. I don’t let him browse the net, but he is allowed on that 1 toy show for limited time when he asks (if he’s done his chores, nothing pressing, etc). We don’t have any app for it (I didn’t even realize there was one for YouTube til you guys mentioned it), but we do have the app for PBS kids, Smithsonian, etc.
I’m monitoring, as I’m sure most other parents are. Sometimes I figure kids are just like adults, and..just want to entertained the same way I did with my Saturday morning cartoons.

Another poster wondered about kids getting outside and playing. Again, agreed. There are now many nature based classrooms where the curriculum allows and requires kids to be outside for a portion of the day above and beyond recess. My son attended a nature based preschool prior to K where he spent the majority of his time there outside, and now attends a school where they head straight outside in the morning, again at recess, and sometimes in the afternoon as well. 2 times/day are guaranteed, barring below zero temps in the double digits with bad wind chill. Otherwise, they have to bring all gear necessary for any weather (now it’s all snowpants and balaclavas, heavy mittens, fall/spring is rain gear and rain boots). There are also after school outdoor clubs. It’s extra work and definitely you lose stuff, but worth it, imho. I think 5-7 is too young to be in a classroom all day, and it guarantees me that he is getting outside if we end up getting home after dark, and he’s wiped. Lots of parents work, and can’t ensure their child is getting out there every day on their own. Nature based programs help.

I think well rounded is where I’m aiming, again, like most parents. I’m not going to withhold technology from him (esp since he has a class in library where they are all taught how to use computers). I’m going to steer it, like you folks, and let him dabble a little more and more as time goes on. If he does it in front of me I can help explain and steer vs letting his friends do it.

ETA: I have no idea what drew my son to this toy show in the first place, but good grief RTR has won over the hearts of a ridiculous number of children. There’s something about this kid and his family.

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
ETA: I have no idea what drew my son to this toy show in the first place, but good grief RTR has won over the hearts of a ridiculous number of children. There’s something about this kid and his family.

It's called well designed advertising and marketing, that's what.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
ETA: I have no idea what drew my son to this toy show in the first place, but good grief RTR has won over the hearts of a ridiculous number of children. There’s something about this kid and his family.

It's called well designed advertising and marketing, that's what.

But it’s the damndest thing. It was just a mom (who was previously a chemist or biochemist, iirc-I did a bit of research on them before I let my son start watching) videoing her kid at home. Not to say they haven’t parlayed it, but it’d be a rare bird who wouldn’t.
I’m surprised that kid hasn’t started acting in movies. I read somewhere a while ago that she stated as soon as it wasn’t fun for him they were done.
ETA: just looked again- she was a chemistry teacher, and lol, looks like he’s gonna be on Nickelodeon this year. I’ll shut up now.

My kids didn't have internet access until about age 8. Then it was in the living room on a very large monitor with me or my wife present.

We had a bad experience with YT kids a few years ago. Our little one was watching some kind of animated kids show that had a horror movie commercial in the middle of it. Mommy was right there and got out of that video. We haven’t had YT kids on since.

Sean

quote:

Originally posted by Sevo1967:
We had a bad experience with YT kids a few years ago. Our little one was watching some kind of animated kids show that had a horror movie commercial in the middle of it. Mommy was right there and got out of that video. We haven’t had YT kids on since.

Sean

We watch YT videos via the Roku on TV of a Northern Ireland-based Christian music group called Rend Collective as well as David Crowder, etc and let our two boys watch them as well as they like to sing and dance along to them.

Same thing as you, all of a sudden between videos, YT is showing ads for horror movies! WTF YT!