9 yr old has own YouTube channel with 3,000 subscribers - is this okay?

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The 9 yr old is my grandchild.
The videos are mostly of games they've played or of their pets and some are of themself, maybe telling a joke or just a smile & wave to say thanks for subscribing .

Is this an okay thing for a 9 year old to be doing? The channel started over 2 years ago but I only heard about it recently. Am I a foolish old gran to be concerned?

I knew a kid of a similar age m

It depends whether their parent is doing good oversight. And whether comments are checked or off.

making a few hundred quid a month on a similar channel.

It depends I guess on if he's identifiable etc. but it could definitely be completely harmless or not ...

Gaming channels are very popular with kids and it's great they take the initiative to make and post the videos. Are his parents supervising the process/channel?

Its not what I allow my 9yo to do (or watch). I don't think they understand the full implications of having their life on record like that.

Some parents encourage it. If they have oversight of it, it should be ok.

Why people enjoy watching kids play games is beyond me though!

YouTube is available to everyone, anywhere in the world, with access to the internet. People could be doing all sorts to /at / with the image of your grandchild.

Personally, I find the idea of any child being exposed in any way on a public forum, horrifying.

I certainly wouldn't like it AT ALL. And I amynot yet 40.

I just wouldn't like that other people could have an insight into my child like that.

Comments are turned off . I don't know what oversight the parents are doing.
There are very few views of each video. Why would there be 3,000 subscribers?

I would not been keen

No not OK

No

Do the parents definitely know that the child has a channel?

I think it's OK for you to ask the parents how they are keeping him safe online if they know of his channel.

I'd be a bit concerned about who those 3000 people are.

What are the videos of?

If it's lots of subscribers but not lots of views, they're probably bots.

Does he make money from it ?
My children dream of having YouTube channel & subscribers.
They were watching such annoying nonsense and I didn't have time to supervise ect so ended up blocking it.
Most content they watch is people playing games or playing with toys. Presume that type of videos your grandson has up and other children are watching them.

No.

Not in a million years would my child be doing this.

So does that mean it doesn't matter ?
If it's only actually a few friends watching?

It's not on Kids You Tube or anything.
Grandchild told me the name of the channel today and I googled and found it.

I don't think there's any money involved, btw.

It depends if they've monetised the channel. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with it with parental oversight.

I don't think you can tell who is watching?

I don't think I'd be happy about this - the main concern would be who wants to watch a 9 year old play video games? It may be innocent and your grandchild is just really charismatic and talented at gaming, but generally, most young people want to watch people who are slightly older than them. I'd only expect children of your grandson's age to have friends and relatives as genuine viewers.

Why not talk to the parents about it to find out what’s actually going on? Unless you know they’re fine with it, probably overseeing it (someone turned off those comments) and you don’t trust them to keep their child safe for some reason? Have the parents a history of doing things that concern you re: the child’s safety?

I don't want to seem like I'm interfering or being citical of the parents.
So I thought I'd ask here to see if this is a usual thing for a child.

It seems like it isn't all that usual, tho, so I'll ask them about it.

Could her parents have bought subscribers to make her feel like her channel was worthwhile/ boost her self confidence? It’s odd to have that many subscribers and hardly any views, someone paying for bot subscribers is the obvious answer.

I don't care what anyone else thinks. My child has a channel and I'm fine with that. Weirdly people do enjoy watching people play games, my kids do, their friends do too.