I have a 13 year old and a 16 year old. They both have a learning disability, so aren't massively like other teenagers of their ages , don't have much social life and are a little younger than their years really.
Over the holidays I've been increasingly horrified at the amount of you tube they watch. I've been fairly relaxed about it up until now as I know there is good stuff on there, but over the holidays watching over their shoulders they are mainly just watching utter crap, just vacuous AI slop, crappy weird content getting punted at them. They don't seem to be able to control it at all and I'm done blaming them. I feel as if I'm sitting looking at them smoke and not preventing it. I've tried installing scroll blockers on their phones so they don't get the shorts, tried manually sitting with their phones and deleting history, dismissing shorts by hand so that they don't get so much shit punted at them, but it's like shovelling snow. They are just watching compilations of shorts. They will maybe start off by watching something ok, but within a couple of videos it's just mindless crap. I can't seem to control the YouTube app at all on the telly either, even if I manage to limit the shorts and delete the history, the subscriptions tab is just full of shorts still.
I've tried talking to them abut the difference between the YouTube brain slop and watching television on Netflix/ iplayer but they don't get it, just get really angry at me. They are obviously addicted and it's horrible to see. We're just in constant battles about it, and if I try to get them to turn it off then the meltdowns ensue. I feel like I have to sit with them and try and curate it for them, which I don't have time to do. I don't have much respite and the time my kids watch telly is literally my only downtime. and I also feel I'm impacting on their independence if I'm babysitting what they are watching. They barely get any independence because of their learning disabilities, so they actually really value there time watching telly alone. and I also don't want to judge their choices necessarily, they don't need to just watch things I think are ok. I'm aware that they can choose to watch things I don't like. But the you tube slop is beyond that, it's just weird fucking brainless shit. I just want to delete the you tube app off their phones and the telly and be done wth it. They can still watch Netflix, iplayer, now tv etc! They have lots of content (and of course real fucking life!)
My eldest in particular is distraught and really angry at me talking about deleting YouTube and it's causing lots of arguments and anxiety. He really values it. But he's watching like 4 hours a day unless I'm constantly at him getting him to turn it off and help him do other things, I'm verging between just ripping the plaster off or trying to find some kind of middle ground.
Help