The safety of children on YouTube is widely debated. YouTube is certainly an attractive option for parents looking to entertain kids. It’s a free service with seemingly endless content that most kids can run themselves. I’ve even watched my two year old niece do it (have mercy on anyone who comes between her and Peppa Pig). On the flip side, concerns have risen not only among parents, but also with FTC leading to YouTube getting fined $170 million. Many have suggested either to not allow kids to use YouTube or to trust the parental controls more than they probably should. This can make it hard for users to find quality information. I have searched the Internet high and low, reading articles, blogs, tweets, and even attempting to find YouTube videos to explain the issues surrounding kids’ use of YouTube. With that in mind, here is a list of the best sources I have found that can help users not only understand the issues, but also how they can be savvy users of the platform.
- Google, YouTube To Pay $170 Million Penalty Over Collecting Kids’ Personal Info– NPR, September 4, 2019
This article I reviewed a few weeks ago is still one of the best overviews of the recent FTC fines imposed on YouTube and the issues the fines address, mainly that children’s online privacy was being violated. - YouTube kids: how unboxing, gaming and toy reviews took over– The Guardian, September 5, 2019
This raises good questions about “kidfluencers,” the digital culture they are surrounded in, and what parents should know about kids creating media online. “The ubiquity of video cameras today empowers people to scratch the itch for fame and notoriety like never before. My only hope is that this digital generation will grow up better equipped to navigate the challenges of the online world than their analog born parents.”- Richard Sprenger -
Raised by YouTube– The Atlantic, November 2018
This is an older article, but it raises many good questions that are becoming more relevant, first about the validity of educational children’s content the second question I found over and over on Twitter today: why has YouTube not moved all of its kids content on to YouTube Kids? -
Parents Shouldn’t Fear Momo. They Should Fear How Little They Understand YouTube.– Buzzfeed News, March 1, 2019
This opinion piece offers advice from Lori Getz, a well-known cyber education expert. In response to panic over Momo, Getz concludes parents need to be actively involved in their children’s online activity. -
For the first time, parents will be able to limit YouTube Kids to human-reviewed channels and recommendations– TechCrunch April 25, 2018
This article is also from 2018, but it gives a good overview of the controls parents can use in the YouTube Kids app to filter the content themselves. It also criticizes YouTube for not putting the controls in from the beginning of the app, which would have prevented problems such as the algorithm filter leading to disturbing and inappropriate content. -
On YouTube’s Digital Playground, an Open Gate for Pedophiles– The New York Times, June 3, 2019
In February 2019 a YouTuber by the moniker MattsWhatItIs posted a video exposing a wormhole of sexually suggestive videos of children, resulting in YouTube shutting down the comment section on videos containing children. This article address the fact that the issue with the algorithm that allows the wormhole to happen still exists and people still have easy access to the content.
