Is a post-screen comedown after YouTube normal for children?

[TwoBoysDad]

The “post-screen” comedown / meltdown — is it a real thing?
My boys (11 & 8) watch maybe 30 mins of YouTube Kids or have some screen time most days. The content’s fine, Lego, dinosaurs, the usual. But there’s a thing that happens after they switch off. They’re not calmer or absorbed in what they watched. More wired. They’re slightly hyper, can’t settle, want more, snap at each other over nothing. It lasts maybe 20-30 minutes then passes.
I don’t get this after CBeebies. Or a Netflix film. There’s something specific about the YouTube format — the rapid cuts, the autoplay, the constant next-thing — that seems to leave them in a different state.
Has anyone else noticed this? Or am I making patterns out of normal small-kid behaviour? And if you have — has anything actually helped, beyond just turning it off?

It doesn’t matter about other peoples kids. If you’ve seen a pattern in yours I’d stop them using it

Yes it’s normal, but it’s a bad sign and suggests your children’s nervous systems are hooked. Like an addict in withdrawal.

IMO YouTube kids is problematic for a bunch of reasons and I stopped letting mine watch it a while ago. Just direct them to something else

Stop them watching it. They’ll soon adjust. It doesn’t sound good for them. I don’t let my kids watch it - it’s mostly brain rot.

Yes. Definitely. My DCs aren't allowed YouTube for this reason. It's harder now DC1 (11) has his own laptop for school but I try and steer him to consuming it more like TV (watch the thing you came to watch and stop). It's really hard. The rabbit hole is hard to extract them from.

I saw this when I used to babysit.

I would remove YouTube for now. They are old enough that you could perhaps explain to them why, being careful to convey that the format of the media is what is causing the problem, i.e. take the blame off them so that see your positive intention rather than punishment. Perhaps ask them if there's a book/DVD/similar that they might like, as you recognise they are losing something they enjoy.

For interests in Lego, dinosaurs etc. a trip to the library is also great (though perhaps you already do this too). My area also has a local Lego club.

I agree, I can’t understand why people let their children watch YouTube when there are quality programmes. I’m finding in school that some of the dc in my class can’t settle to watch an actual programme like octonauts because they are so used to watching clip after clip on YouTube so they haven’t got any concentration span.

That’s why YouTube is banned in our house - same age kids

I’d also turn it off. Their systems can’t cope with it. They won’t be fans of not watching it but they will get over it, and you’ll be so glad you have in the long run.

I’d never let my children watch YouTube. I can’t actually believe some parents do?!

As above, yes and this is why I banned it in my house.

Yes this is normal, and yes it's a bad thing. We had something similar but the addiction is hard to handle. Can it 'break'? This either means that the device has to be out of action for at least a couple or weeks until they have learned to cope without it, or you install a blocker which also means you can't watch youtube. Either way it's good for us parents to have a break from screens too!

They need time to adjust to the normalcy of life again which is slower, less colourful and , to them, will look more dull. They readjust.

YouTube is awful. I don’t let either of mine watch it, even the kids. It’s just shorts and doom scrolling for children. So get rid of that, there’s loads of other things they could watch.

But 30 minutes is pointless. It’s like giving someone a lolly and then taking it away when they’re half done. Of course, it will cause a meltdown!

What I find works well is getting them out as much as possible. Activities, walks, playing outside, and then when they do watch tv (not gaming, not YouTube), there is no timer. It’s like until dinner is ready. The overall time is the same or less, but it doesn’t make it a forbidden fruit.

We have banned YouTube for our seven year old and just have Netflix. Even educational shows like Crunchlabs are fast paced, lots of super fast talking, loud noises etc. YouTube is completely saturated, so almost anything that makes it to the top is going to have a variation on this model to grab and keep attention. It’s designed to be addictive, and addictive substances always have a comedown.

Some kids are more sensitive to it than others, and yours sound like they’d be better off without it. A couple of YouTube channel shows have made it to Netflix (WTF Netflix) and I’d forgotten how quickly they get hooked.

Yes, the impact of YouTube/tablets on kids is widely spoken about. Have you been living under a rock?

Its format causes lots of dopamine hits. Its like a little reward each time the content changes. So its an adjustment from that.

How do you block YouTube on the TV though?

You can use Nextdns. https://nextdns.io/ we use it in our house and it blocks all sorts of website at the router and lists popular ones to choose from.

Yes. It's the agitation after, not the engagement during, that's been the alarming bit. Did you find anything that actually helped or did you just remove it entirely?

Yes they do have a long term impact anything addictive. My kids know Mark Rober from crunchbase. Some of his tests are ok some are not. I think the youtube platform rewards views and hence why Netflix want some of that action too!

As a teacher, are you seeing this more in the last few years specifically, or has it always been there?

yes, fair. I think we're heading there too. The thing I keep getting stuck on is how to handle it as they get older / when they're at friends' houses / on the school iPad. The ban becomes harder to maintain?

Ha, fair point, maybe! Though I'd say the general "screens are bad" thing is widely spoken about, but the specific post-screen comedown / dysregulation thing less so. Plenty of "limit screen time" advice out there, much less on what's actually happening to their nervous systems while they watch. That's the bit I was trying to put words to. Replies here have been more useful than a year of Googling or asking ChatGPT :)

Just go cold turkey in your house. No YouTube for young dc here.