To Be worried about the hypnotic effect of some YouTubers on my son

[Boredbumhead]

My ds is nearly 9. He has his own laptop for school work etc which was very useful in lockdown. However, he is very addicted to these YouTube channels. Especially the ones with large annoying voices and personalities. Whenever he wakes up or comes from school or back in the house from a walk, hes straight on it unless there is a big confrontation or I turn the internet off. I can't constantly do activities with him, but AIBU to think he is being brainwashed or something? I'm rather concerned. If you have a 9 year old what activities do they do inside and outside the house?

Unspeakable/ Jelly/Slogoman types ?

Welcome to the challenges of parenting a tween boy! It's a nightmare....

It is the modern way kids watch tv unfortunately, they are the new stars of the screen. Just make sure you are aware what he is watching and limit screen time - we set clear rules as to when they can and cannot have it and that seems to work.

Unspeakable/ Jelly/Slogoman types ?
Yes exactly those types and some young twenty something girl with Botox lips @Feellikedancingyeah

Our 6 year old is obsessed with YouTube. We have all restricted modes and kids modes on but still an autoplay of someone shouting racist slurs over a Disney song came on. I've ended up blocking YouTube on the WiFi between 7am-pm as don't want to take the risk of nipping out of the room and him being exposed to that. I hate how commercial the channels are too, glorified advert

i've ended up blocking YouTube on the WiFi between 7am-pm
@FaceTheRaven80 how do I block it? Good idea

I'm with Virgin, go into Web Safe settings, turn on child safe mode and add these to the website block list:
youtube.com
www.youtube.com
m.youtube.com
ytimg.com
s.ytimg.com
ytimg.l.google.com
youtube.l.google.com
i.google.com
googlevideo.com
youtu.be

Means it can't be accessed on any device including smart TVs.

Definitely block it if you can. Most smart tvs allow you to put a pin on apps.

Don't assume YouTube kids is suitable content either. My DS has stumbled across stuff that was age inappropriate. I only let him watch YouTube when I'm in the room now.

I banned YouTube a few weeks ago, after seeing what was seemingly an innocent video feature very inappropriate images.
The change in my 7 year old since then has been massive!

We've banned it completely. It was the only way, and within days there was a big improvement in dd8s behaviour. I highly recommend it, I wish a grown up would get me off certain sites on the internet sometimes...

Yes! My son is 8 and is obsessed with watching these morons for hours at a time. I do restrict screen time but the problem is if he isn't watching them, he's constantly talking about them or asking when he can next go on the ipad to watch them and will flop about the house until he can have more time on it. It's utterly draining. I might try and block it using similar approach as above and pretend YouTube has gone bust or something.

Thanks all. I've been semi liberal about this up to now, but I think I need to ban all of this stuff. I'm just deleting 10 pages of apps off my phone. He learns my password by watching me put my passport in.

@LolaVsPowerman that is interesting. I feel like my nearly 9 year old is not all there sometimes wishing for his next fix of YouTube. I'm going to have to make him go cold turkey I think. Especially now my 5 year old is copying him!

he's constantly talking about them or asking when he can next go on the ipad to watch them and will flop about the house until he can have more time on it. It's utterly draining

Yes that's exactly the behaviour! Good idea. YouTube has closed down!

Restrict it. I’m if the mind you can’t completely cut this part of culture from their lives if they are interested in it (doesn’t matter if we ‘understand’ or not)
BUT we have restrictions in place and watching YouTube counts as tech time... so they can chose YT or gaming... not the both.
I also tell my kids I can see them getting stupider the more they watch. Sometime I check to see if their brains are still there by looking in there ears 🤪 A good dose a shami g works in my kids!

@SuperSharpShooter that's the whole thing. It's like trying to restrict heroin. A taste of it and he's hooked. It's ruins his attitude the whole day.