To ban YouTube completely for 6year old?

[enjoyingtheleaves]

My DS (6) watches little TV, he doesn't even have a tablet and I make sure that we have a huge amount of time crafting/ outdoors. However he really loves watching a bit of these Minecraft clips and also some of these daft vidoes where youtubers do all sorts of rubbish - some of this stuff is so ridiculously stupid that I just had to try it off the other day, my dS absolutely exploded as wet mad that I turned it off. AIBU to complete my ban YouTube and only let him watch TV/ or Disney? Or will that make him want YouTube even more?

I have done exactly that with my 6 year old. I removed the YouTube kids profile and put a passcode on our adult YouTube profile on the TV so he can’t access it anymore. The videos he was watching were just brain rot and his behaviour really deteriorated so i said enough was enough.

Turn it off. He doesn’t need it. our kids could watch it at 10/11 but on the family TV only in the living room where we could see exactly what they were watching.
Will still have it blocked on their phones and laptops now - and they’re Yr 9 &11
Its a time suck, and you can’t control the shite they get fed.

My daughter's are 10 and 8 - they have never had any access to YouTube.

Not at all. I do permit DS6 to watch supervised YouTube as he is interested in boats and aeroplanes but it needs to be carefully managed to stop any nonsense being recommended.

Absolutely turn it off, a child that age doesn’t need access to any YouTube.

Thank you all so much! Yes the amount of utter shite on there just boggles the mind. It's ashame because some stuff is really educational but as one poster said above it's brain rot.

It’s just social media in a slightly different form and no child needs it.

Get him a book. Get him 2 books!

There is some good and interesting stuff on YouTube so I've compromised and said dc3 can only watch it in the lounge, where I can make sure he hasn't ended up in algorithm led brain rotting territory.

Tried this but it really didn't work. He just wanted the other stuff back on....

I have deleted YouTube from the tv as the kids would watch the same videos over and over and then spend lots of time begging me to let them watch some nonsense that it went on to recommend. It was driving me mad. They watch way too much tv regardless so getting rid of you tube at least restricts them a bit.

On goodness, he has hundreds. I’m not that sort of parent. But a 15-minute easy explainer on the Titanic disaster is a very good addition to his learning.

Got a 7 year old and wouldn't even consider giving them access to it anytime soon. She still has to ask to turn the TV on!

The algorithm on it defaults to some really alarming stuff, so if you want to let them use it for the positive stuff, do this under direct adult supervision or you can make a note of the channel name and allow it under a kids profile under the "restricted" setting - that will then only show the channels that you expressly approve.

The other kids' profile settings are still chock full of absolute trash, some of it is brainrot nonsense, some of it has really obnoxious behaviour you don't want them emulating, and some of it is actually scary/disturbing. I have to go through every couple of weeks and block 90% of the channels. I took some screenshots the other day of the absolute weird inappropriate stuff that comes up - the "spider" one was on the preschool setting (age 0-4) and the "nuke" one was on the young child setting (age 4-7). The thing that prompted me to go through and cull again was that I found my 7yo watching videos of people getting sucked into escalators and injured.

Not to mention the weird stuff I can only assume is fetish adjacent that somehow makes it through the filters, like the obsession with showing various children's characters pregnant, or receiving gigantic injections/dental treatments making them cry. (I don't have screenshots of these as I blocked them ages ago but they pop up again every so often).

Very close to just deleting the entire app unless I can get the restricted mode to work again.

Oh gosh this exactly!! Why on earth do they keep watching them over and over??

Banned in our house too!

Damn sorry I should have marked the images as sensitive but I don't think I can now.

I’ve just gone cold turkey on all screen for my almost 4 year old. It’s been nearly 3 weeks now. YouTube nonsense was her favourite. I’ve seen such a positive improvement in her behaviour.

I don’t let DD5 watch any short-form videos that she can scroll through indefinitely. She can mainline movies on the TV all she likes, or 15 minute episodes of a kids series, but she happily asks questions & engages with DH or I if we’re watching those types of things together, which she doesn’t do on You Tube, she just mindlessly consumes it.

Yes , DS behaviour has gone downhill as well, I'm hoping that will improve with no screen time!

My 11 year old only has it on the telly in the sitting room, it’s passcode protected so I have to put it on. He seems to watch football tips on if. My 7 year old doesn’t have access at all.

Ive done the same for my DD who’s the same age as yours, it’s been 4 months and her behaviour is soo much better. We watch films as a family (and she watches football with her dad as he loves it, now she does too!) but she doesn’t have any screen time apart from that

YouTube is banned in my house unless it homework related or an actual tutorial on how to do something (crochet or drawing an animal). It’s been banned for a few years now and I have no intention of changing that in the immediate future.

We don’t let our similar age child watch YouTube. Occasionally we will watch specific YouTube videos with him but if he’s going to watch something while we are doing something else, even in the same room, then we use a proper paid streaming service. If we know what show or movie he’s chosen on Netflix then I’m happy I have a good idea of what he’s being exposed to and just need to check in now and then to make sure he hasn’t switched over to something unsuitable (unlikely anyway since he’s on the kids Netflix profile). YouTube is the fucking Wild West. I know there’s a kids’ mode but an algorithm is not a replacement for responsible adults reviewing the content before it becomes available to watch.

I banned my youngest from Youtube very soon after letting him try at at age seven. I've always limited screentime reasonably strictly anyway, but for some reason Youtube really impacted his behaviour. He'd get properly stroppy about turning off, imitate some of the more bratty ways of speaking on it etc. I let him have it again around aged 8.5 and he was fine with it.