My children are allowed to watch YouTube, be it age-filtered normal YouTube (my nine-year-old) or YouTube Kids (my six-year-old). They are not, however, allowed to watch YouTube on the family television. It’s restricted to their iPads because, truth be told, I don’t want to watch most of that garbage. I understand why they are entertained by a strange YouTube family pulling harmless pranks on one another—but I’m good!
In other words, the family TV is for family screen time (aka us watching and having a blast with Independence Day over the recent holiday) or it’s my children picking a show they both agree upon, like rewatching an episode of Stranger Things. Unfortunately for me, a recent shift in how platforms like Netflix and Disney+ operate has my children accidentally violating the “No YouTube on the TV” principle because these platforms have started licensing content from YouTube and placing them directly in the apps.
Now, YouTube is on the TV and Salish Matter’s father is turning my brain into mush.
The one place my children are allowed to watch YouTube on TV is grandma’s house. That is by design: a fun perk exclusive to sleeping over. It’s also a get-out-jail card for myself. (Humorously, the person my mom is most annoyed by is also Salish’s father!)
The other exception is that we’ll often wind down evenings by watching trailers for upcoming movies, TV shows, and games. The videos are short and sweet, perfect for my kids nibbling on the last bits of a treat before we’re kicking off the bedtime routine.
Otherwise, I let the kids have (mostly) free rein over what they watch.
They can clock when something might look inappropriate, at which point they’ll ask if it’s okay to watch. (Usually it’s OK.) And at least for right now, there’s enough across Netflix and Disney+ that they can agree upon. For a long time, that was endlessly rerunning Bluey episodes. Later, it was jumping between seasons of Stranger Things.
I don’t know when it happened exactly.
I just know that one morning, after handing the kids their breakfast, the TV started yapping with that familiar over-the-top tone that defines so much content on YouTube, especially videos aimed at younger audiences. Everyone is always yelling.
The thing is, my nine-year-old (who’s almost 10) is sharp. She’s old enough to poke holes in arguments. So when I waltzed over to point out how they’d violated the “no YouTube on TV” rule, she was more than happy to back and show that it was available on Netflix. Did she know it was a YouTube video? Yes. But she said it didn’t count.
“Motherfucker,” I muttered under my breath. Technically, she was right.
I now spend my days hoping my tinnitus drains out Salish Matter and Topper Guild.
It helps explain popular reddit reads like this one: “Don’t mind me, just blacklisting shows on Netflix so my husband stops putting them on for our young kids.” One, we gotta do better here, Dad. Two, I didn’t realize this was something you could do.
“So bye bye, little angel, bye bye cocomelon, bye bye Masha and the bear,” wrote the original poster. “and a couple other shows that no matter how many times I tell my husband not to put on for the kids, it still happens.”
(I remember that show. It was awful.)
“I need to do this because I found out my 8yo watched some trash prank reality show on Netflix (under the kids account) with two different babysitters,” said another poster. “(It’s Salish and Jordan Matter.)”
Matter haters unite!!!!!!
This is part of a broader “Youtubization of Netflix,” as Deadline recently put it:
“The deal marks an expansion of the so-called Youtubization of Netflix, part of a push to combat falling engagement, including the licensing of content creators such as Salish Matter. Last year, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said YouTube was useful for creators to ‘cut their teeth on’ and called the Google-owned platform a “little bit of a farm league’. Children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel, prank collective The Sidemen and dating show Pop The Balloon are among the people and projects that began on YouTube and ended up on Netflix.”
Creators like the Matter family are supposed to eventually make Netflix-exclusive content, such as “scripted, unscripted, and animated series, in which Salish will star.”
For now, though, you’re stuck with a Netflix-curated playlist of YouTube videos.
This is also why you’ve also seen video podcasts popping up on Netflix.
I don’t think Salish and her annoying father are inherently worse than watching some mediocre cartoon. This is, on some level, a semi-selfish act in which I loathe hearing it from a TV whose audio bleeds into other parts of the house. I think it is healthy and normal to consume garbage programming—but please do so with your headphones on.
Maybe this is a boomer millennial mindset, but I prefer they watch the mediocre cartoon over the hyper exaggerated nonsense on YouTube! And that’s before we get into my general unease with families building social empires out of their children.
(Matter is 16 years old, but was appearing in his father’s videos when she was eight.)
Our approach going forward is likely to be twofold.
On Netflix, I’m going to block YouTube-to-Netflix shows from their profile. Salish survives, because it’s already there and that feels mean. As far as I can tell, you can’t do this on Disney+, which means I remain cursed by Topper Guild.
We’ll institute a “you can watch one episode, then find something else rule.”
Good controls are important. These trends are going to get worse, but if I can continue customizing the way my children interact with media, I can sleep easier.
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Also:
How do you handle YouTube on the TV in your house? I’m curious what other approaches people take. Maybe an account that hand curates various channels?
I do not, in general, watch YouTube myself. I realize this makes me different than younger audiences, and I’m trying to be mindful about generational gaps.
Much in the same way that Roblox is not going to let me filter out AI videos, Netflix and Disney+ are not likely to let you block “YouTube videos.” They want your kids to become invested these kids, families, and words. But it’s annoying.
Thank you for writing this and confirming that I’m not losing my mind. I thought Netflix was a safe space. It’s not!
I have a pretty draconian approach to Youtube. I will vet, download, and transfer videos to their iPads from Youtube for my kids (9 & 6) to enjoy (TinyKitchen and Art Hub for Kids are two favorites), but they have zero access themselves. I have a deep distrust of the protections from algorithmic garbage and worse that Youtube offers.
This new content on the streaming services technically should not be too offensive since it has been also been vetted, but I reacted pretty negatively to see my youngest drawn into the whatever Disney+ had. Since it lacks the controls to block, like you mentioned, I am honestly considering giving Disney the boot. I know my kids will eventually be exposed to this sort of content, but I am not letting it happen quite yet.