To ask if YouTube makes your child behave badly?

[PotterLottery]

My DD is 7 (nearly 8) and as are most kids her age, a little obsessed with YouTube. She mostly watches gaming videos (Minecraft, Mario and Toca boca)

I'm quite strict with it, she only watches it when I'm there (on the big TV) and it's limited to once or twice a day. However I do find whenever she's been watching it she is just so... giddy, silly and annoying after she comes off. She doesn't listen, is rude to me and just a general pain! Either that or she is the opposite and really really grumpy and moany.

I used to let her watch half an hour of it before bed but she was never going to sleep and shouting me til all hours. So I've stopped it and luckily she's sleeping much better now. But the way she's behaving makes me want to ban it altogether.

Just wondered if anyone else's children were affected like this 🙈

And yet you're entitled to have screen time aren't you? Kids learn by example. I see you're not limiting your time to one film on a Saturday.

Used to be but in fairness it helped us survive lockdown.
She is bored of it now thankfully. Although is busy back at school and clubs so doesn't get as much time to go on it.

No, never noticed anything like this. I think a lot of parents scapegoat certain programmes/apps when talking about their kids’ poor behaviour but I think in fact it’s more habitual than anything else. They bent into the habit of being silly at certain times. At 7/8 I’d be working that in and parenting appropriately. So I’d tell my child ‘you can watch YouTube for x time. If there is any silliness or bad behaviour afterward then you won’t be allowed to watch YouTube again this week because it must be encouraging you to be silly.’ Then stick to it.

Yep. Mine were obsessed around 7 yo and it is completely banned now they were obsessed with it. It was much easier to completely take it away than try to out time limits on.

There's also interesting food for thought in the link between increased screen time and increased frustration. YouTube and games present maximum reward for minimum input. It's difficult then for kids to adjust to real life's pattern which has far fewer rewards for greater effort.

My nearly 9 year old gets a bit hyped up watching it so is only allowed a limited amount in Saturdays and Sundays only. Five days break between sessions stops him getting obsessed but he still loves his Saturday morning session and laughs till he cries at some of the nonsense.

Oddly, not experienced this with my daughter!

There's a balance to be struck in all things, I think. My DC watched a lot of YouTube during the first lockdown when we were forced to rely on screens as a babysitter, but we pre-programmed the videos with things like phonics and numberblocks and he seemed to learn a lot from it. As good as us reading with him and interacting with him? Definitely not. But not totally valueless either. And we tried to break it up with actual attention from human beings.

We've also found letting him watch videos on stuff like table manners helpful when we've been struggling with those things. It seems he'd rather hear from some animated panda how to behave at table than his own parents 🙄.

Yes! If she watches netflix or prime, she's fine but if I let her watch youtube kids, and it tends to be those ridiculous unpacking videos, she is a nightmare and it's just tantrum after tantrum. I banned it for months and then let her watch it yesterday and then she was like that girl off the exorcist trying to get her to bed. I've deleted the app now. Funnily enough, I let dd watch some cartoon on prime before bed and she was a dream to get to sleep.

Yes, she’s a nightmare when she gets goggling at YouTube - usually just at random Disney Princess theories and paper folding crafts, but her behaviour takes a nosedive. We don’t have a smart TV so she tends to do it at her grandparents’. Drives me potty.

Definitely not just yours! It's banned from my house entirely (we have blocked it from our wifi) because my DC become feral.

Their friends' parents say similar, but still let their DC watch it, which baffles me tbh. I mean, each to their own of course, but if you're noticing/complaining about something entirely unnecessary that has a negative effect on your child, why on earth are you not removing said unnecessary thing? Bizarre.

I am so so glad to read the comments. I think I am going to ban it - but its going to be so hard, she loves it so much! I do realise it was ridiculous to let her watch it before bed but it was mostly after younger DS went to bed.

I'm in a similar situation. The fall out will be huge though hopefully short lived. Issue I have is that there is an older sibling who is fine with it due to the choice of videos and no big fall outs.

If you decide to allow it back it the future you can go into the settings on your YouTube account and turn that auto play feature off and nothing should play once the video has finished.

Oh useful! Thanks @ChronicallyOnline