To want to ban my two year old from YouTube?

[NotInAsda]

I’ve got my flameproof knickers on for this because I know, I’m being lazy allowing my child to use a phone to keep him quiet for a moment, but I really don’t want him using YouTube any more.

We tend to let him look at our phones for a few minutes to brush his teeth (he hates it so the couple of minutes playing with the phone usually buys us enough time). Last week I heard my partner saying “no, that’s not nice!” and our son crying because the phone had been taken off him. Turns out he had been watching one of those ubiquitous ‘Mummy Finger Daddy Finger’ videos and it had animals fighting each other in

I was upset about it at the time and now there seems to be news all the time about apps and videos aimed at kids being something horrible instead (like the Blaze app that went viral). I want to stop him using YouTube altogether and only have access to “safe” stuff like CBeebies content.

My partner says I’m overreacting and he’s got all his settings such that our son won’t see anything harmful. But I don’t really want to take the risk.

Who is BU?

You can download toothbbrushing apps instead of letting him watch YouTube during that. But I wouldn’t let him on YouTube unsupervised regardless.

TWO? You can easily ban a two year old from Youtube....because, two.
I'd be finding something more appropriate to watch. There's all sorts on there.

Use the kids YouTube app. It doesn't have any dodgy stuff.

Our 2 year old watches YouTube but only while sat on one of our laps with us controlling what's seen.
Of course yanbu, there's no need for a 2 year old to watch it if you don't want them to.

A 2 year old doesn't need YouTube. Of course you should ban it. Go on the cbeebies app if that's what you want. :-)

We came across dodgy stuff now YouTube kids unfortunately not terrible, but weird and inappropriate.

We have banned it except under close supervision. Kids have forgotten about it quickly enough.

A two year old doesn't even need to know YouTube exists! Ffs what happened to parenting? Do we need a fucking app for everything?

Find something else got him to do. Children spend too much time gawping at screens as it is.

And a 2 year old can’t be blamed for dropping your phone down the loo if you have allowed him to play with it.

The kids Youtube app only removes stuff when people complain. There is no vetting.

Youtube has a huge amount of autogenerated videos aimed at children, that look innocent at first but have deliberately nasty content.

This is an interesting read on this topic. The app isn't as secure as YouTube wants you to think:

medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2

What Pengggwn said. Just take it away. He is 2!!!!

I’m probably far too relaxed about internet usage but yes, leaving a two year old with YouTube is unnecessary and lazy.

I made up a "Teeth Cleaning" song and dance for my granddaughter. It worked, she love cleaning her teeth. Be imaginative....
I cannot see the need for YouTube at age 2 under any circumstances.

A 2 year old watching you tube?! What the hell?!

You shouldn't be letting a 2-year-old access the internet by themselves.

Read this: medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2

"Someone or something or some combination of people and things is using YouTube to systematically frighten, traumatise, and abuse children, automatically and at scale, and it forces me to question my own beliefs about the internet, at every level. Much of what I am going to describe next has been covered elsewhere, although none of the mainstream coverage I’ve seen has really grasped the implications of what seems to be occurring."

He needs to watch you tube when brushing his teeth?!.... That’s pretty shoddy parenting.

He's been watching it for more than teeth cleaning purposes!!!

Is this a fucking joke ?

Just to clarify, he’s only “unsupervised” for as much time as it takes to put toothpaste on the brush or whatever. But he’s learnt how to choose the videos himself and to me that’s too risky.

Sounds like I’m going to have to lay the law down to my partner a bit.

There's a simple answer which is save the videos you have pre watched and know are safe, which DS likes. Save them to a play list and only ever play those to him.

I hesitate to add "duh"

YANBU. Get a kids Kindle fire? FWIW I don't allow my 6 and 8 year olds unsupervised YouTube access although they are allowed certain channels and YouTube Kids.

Because of experience with what and how vulnerable children can see and use YouTube in my work, my 5 year old has no idea what YouTube is.

We went through the tooth cleaning issue (he hated it!) ; we used a tooth brushing app or he could watch a bit of octonauts on my iplayer app.

Our old iPad only has, as far as he's concerned, CBeebies on it, plus their apps and some other games I've chosen. (Not much room for anything else.) he watches Netflix on the tv but then only really milk shake and CBeebies as well.

That is all plenty and more than I ever had.

I think YouTube can be dangerous for children. I know of a child who was getting terrible adult comments from around the world cos he'd worked out how to set up a channel a few years ago.

I do a lot of internet safety through work so he can access YouTube when I know he's got a level of responsibility to understand it's bad side too.

Use the kids YouTube app. It doesn't have any dodgy stuff.

Look up Elsagate