Is Youtube safe?

[susancollins31]

Hi everyone, my little girl, who's 6, loves watching YouTube, but I get worried about what she might see when I'm not there. I tried YouTube Kids, but even some of the videos it suggests aren't great :(

I'm a bit stuck. There are a few channels I'm fine with her watching for about 30 minutes while I do stuff around the house, but I wish I could control those channels better. Am I worrying too much? Any simple tips or tools that work for you mums? Thanks! x

Hmm..not sure I'd want my kid on it. But I dont know anything about the kids version. Can she watch it on TV? (as I certainly wouldn't want her having access to the comments).

You can create a playlist and add videos that you know are ok to watch. Some kids videos won't allow you to save them. But generally it's a good way to do it. Make sure it's on auto play if the videos are short so the playlist will just keep going.

using the TV (agree, no comments!) and finding safe videos ahead of time is a good idea. maybe i will just spend a day to watch a videos and add them to a queue 😂😂
😂

You tube kids is safer than you tube but to be honest I wouldn’t want any young child watching them without knowing what they were watching. I work with children/young people and I’ve seen them watching totally inappropriate content that parents are unaware of or just not really arsed about. There are cartoon like videos like peppa pit or bluey for example that have been voiced over with swearing/adult content: you wouldn’t know if they had headphones on. Then adverts may be too old for films etc.

I think creating playlists you can download/watch beforehand is very useful.

Noooo!! YouTube is like junk food for the brain. Nothing good comes of it, apart from those DIY videos if you're doing up a house lol. Seriously though, just use a channel that's actually vetted like iPlayer, netflix etc. Anyone can post anything of YouTube and once a child sees something they will never unsee it. The risks don't outweigh the benefits, for me at least.

No it’s not suitable for her to watch unsupervised. It’s generally full of crap programmes anyway.

You can set up YouTube kids so she can only watch approved channels - if you severely limit those channels it should be fine. My son has five approved. You can also block videos within those channels... but they can repost, so it's not foolproof.

I don't think it's brilliant for young kids to have that instant dopamine effect of jumping from one video for another, so I don't allow it for long. But it is handy, and means he's quite restricted in what he sees.

Watch a happy tree friends video on youtube alone, and see if you can stomach it to the end

Then think how easy it would be for a child to watch it

I've found a fix, youtubeshield.com is great, I just put in the few channels I've approved (pbs kids, some music artists) and now I'm comfortable giving her the ipad for a bit if I'm busy. easier to set up than youtube kids. recommend! x

I personally wouldn't let a primary child use YouTube unsupervised no matter what safe-guards you think you have tried to put in place it's very common knowledge that these companies have no interest in helping safeguard children and willing allow horrific content on their platforms cos you know, every penny/cent of profit they can make no matter what the cost is worth it.

I usually choose a few channels for my little one and then just play their playlists! I try to put on educational ones that aren't too overstimulating! Currently, I put on Dream Team Kids and their music playlist which she loves and also Ms Monica on YouTube! Also there is safe streaming like happy kids TV and kidoodle, a little better than youtube! I hope this helps.