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by nineplay 1868 days ago
Youtube for kids is fine - at least the Apple TV app. it's carefully curated. They show The Wiggles, Yo Gabba Gabba, Kid's Bop, and some Sesame Street. It may make parents want to run and hide but I'll happily leave my 3 year old in front of it.

There are ads, of course, but tolerable ones. Certainly not any worse than what I watched on commercial television back in the day.
2 comments
tastyfreeze 1868 days ago
Youtube Kids for the 7-13 group is terrible. Interesting harmless videos (mostly science related) are not available on Youtube Kids. The problem seems to be that the creator needs to label their video as kid friendly or it doesn't have a chance of being available on Youtube Kids.

Videos from channels like Cody's Lab, King of Random, Smarter Everyday and similar are not available on Youtube Kids. This wouldn't really be a problem if Youtube allowed parents to mark a channel or videos as OK for their children. But, it is an outright block for children under 13 with no capacity for discretion.

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throwaway3699 1868 days ago
This comes down to COPPA regulations and the fact that child friendly channels are not allowed to use targeted ads, which really slashes revenue on a site like YouTube. Creators actively avoid it.
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nineplay 1868 days ago
Totally agree, there's a gap there. I block youtube.com completely, only opening it up briefly when there's a school assignment to watch a video which I think is playing with fire.

I tried to create a youtube account with whatever checkbox they have that is "please only show safe content". I subscribed to kid's science channels. The garbage that came though was astonishing.

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throwaway3699 1867 days ago
Have you found any problems with them being left out of all the in-jokes and culture? I don't think kids culture (esp. for boys) really exists anywhere online outside of YouTube. That's part of why gaming is so popular on that site. I no longer watch TV because YouTube has way better stuff.
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toast0 1867 days ago
You can get in-jokes by second hand exposure. I understand a good amount of Simpsons jokes from tireless repetition by friends, even though I haven't watched the show much at all. (It was forbidden in my childhood home, and passe when I left)
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herbst 1867 days ago
Youtube kids contains things i think are creepy. I know they heavily decreased the sexualized content, but some of the scare stuff IMO still goes to far.
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