I remember playing whack-a-mole on the youtube kids app blocking all the channels that just reposted garbage content, and being briefly terrified when I saw that Diana and Roma had been added to MAX The One To Watch For HBO. Thankfully my kids were never really interested in booting up that app. I think Vlad and Niki are on amazon prime now, too, so I guess it was just a matter of time before Netflix got in on all that.
With the long summer days, we are working through figuring out appropriate levels of youtube on the TV that will keep the whole family sane. Thankfully even my youngest (6 yo) seems to have aged out of the over-the-top family shenanigans videos and just wants to watch kid-horror game playthroughs (Poppy's Playtime and 5 Nights) and Backrooms lore videos.
We're very close to banning Salish. It's annoying, it tricks my kids into thinking dangerous activities are ok (I explained to them that everything is planned and staged so they wouldn't think messing with theme park ride controls are OK), Salish's father looks like a scrotum, and they have infinite shows to replace the hole in their hearts left by banning Salish.
Oh man, I am an elder millennial (a xennial, by some sources) and I ONLY let my kid watch YouTube on the family TV. My thought being, there is way too much weird crap and I don't want him to end up engrossed in something inappropriate. A lot of it starts out very normal and then takes a weird turn... I also hate the youtubification of other apps, in fact im >this< close to deleting our subscriptions over it. We limit it to 30 minutes of youtube, no shorts and ideally one video that takes up the full 30. It's crazy the difference in his attitude and focus when we limit it.
An interesting dichotomy - I'm an older millenial (36) but still regularly watch specific content creators on Youtube (Gamer's Nexus, some LTT channels); my wife watches Critical Role.
the Youtube Kids app definitely isn't perfect, but the parent on the Google Account can 'share' specific videos or entire channels, and it'll show up as a 'Shared with You' option.
There's also an option to clear their algorithm, which I think is going to be super essential; I'll likely do it at the end of the summer as I don't want to send my kiddo into Grade 2 with encyclopedic knowledge of all the SCP creepypasta content.
Finding content that IS on Youtube but much less cringe inducing is probably the way forward; banning channels/creators, but not suggesting alternatives feels like an easy way to create a 'forbidden fruit' bond.
I'm lucky that Mark Rober, National Geographic and a few other 'calmer' content channels can be found.
Our 10 year old and 7 year old can watch YouTube Kids on the family TV unsupervised during specific times of the day (after school during the school year while I finish working or before breakfast on the weekends). "Regular" YouTube is something our eldest gets to watch after his sister goes to bed and only with one of his parents in the room to approve the content. He fell down a couple algorithm rabbit holes that put paid to unsupervised time pretty quickly! These videos popping up on Netflix specifically have gotten them to pull the same thing as your daughter and I've been equally caught by the loophole. "We know it is 'No YouTube Time' but this is NETFLIX".
I remember playing whack-a-mole on the youtube kids app blocking all the channels that just reposted garbage content, and being briefly terrified when I saw that Diana and Roma had been added to MAX The One To Watch For HBO. Thankfully my kids were never really interested in booting up that app. I think Vlad and Niki are on amazon prime now, too, so I guess it was just a matter of time before Netflix got in on all that.
With the long summer days, we are working through figuring out appropriate levels of youtube on the TV that will keep the whole family sane. Thankfully even my youngest (6 yo) seems to have aged out of the over-the-top family shenanigans videos and just wants to watch kid-horror game playthroughs (Poppy's Playtime and 5 Nights) and Backrooms lore videos.
We're very close to banning Salish. It's annoying, it tricks my kids into thinking dangerous activities are ok (I explained to them that everything is planned and staged so they wouldn't think messing with theme park ride controls are OK), Salish's father looks like a scrotum, and they have infinite shows to replace the hole in their hearts left by banning Salish.
Thank you for writing this and confirming that I’m not losing my mind. I thought Netflix was a safe space. It’s not!
Oh man, I am an elder millennial (a xennial, by some sources) and I ONLY let my kid watch YouTube on the family TV. My thought being, there is way too much weird crap and I don't want him to end up engrossed in something inappropriate. A lot of it starts out very normal and then takes a weird turn... I also hate the youtubification of other apps, in fact im >this< close to deleting our subscriptions over it. We limit it to 30 minutes of youtube, no shorts and ideally one video that takes up the full 30. It's crazy the difference in his attitude and focus when we limit it.
An interesting dichotomy - I'm an older millenial (36) but still regularly watch specific content creators on Youtube (Gamer's Nexus, some LTT channels); my wife watches Critical Role.
the Youtube Kids app definitely isn't perfect, but the parent on the Google Account can 'share' specific videos or entire channels, and it'll show up as a 'Shared with You' option.
There's also an option to clear their algorithm, which I think is going to be super essential; I'll likely do it at the end of the summer as I don't want to send my kiddo into Grade 2 with encyclopedic knowledge of all the SCP creepypasta content.
Finding content that IS on Youtube but much less cringe inducing is probably the way forward; banning channels/creators, but not suggesting alternatives feels like an easy way to create a 'forbidden fruit' bond.
I'm lucky that Mark Rober, National Geographic and a few other 'calmer' content channels can be found.
Our 10 year old and 7 year old can watch YouTube Kids on the family TV unsupervised during specific times of the day (after school during the school year while I finish working or before breakfast on the weekends). "Regular" YouTube is something our eldest gets to watch after his sister goes to bed and only with one of his parents in the room to approve the content. He fell down a couple algorithm rabbit holes that put paid to unsupervised time pretty quickly! These videos popping up on Netflix specifically have gotten them to pull the same thing as your daughter and I've been equally caught by the loophole. "We know it is 'No YouTube Time' but this is NETFLIX".