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Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

theatlantic.com

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Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#71
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife is a teacher and one of her students in grade 2 has somehow been seeing beheading videos (apparently on youtube but that seems nearly impossible) because they are left with an ipad for so long. I can't even begin to comprehend what that would do to the brain of a child. TV for children is very restricted and regulated for a very important reason.

Beheading was public spectacle up until very recently, kids are less distressed by seeing violence than you might think. If anything it's people with problems that tend to search for such things rather than such videos causing something.

Also, privacy is a relatively modern privilege, for a long time kids grew up around people having sex.

Somehow they failed to be horribly scarred by it.

https://medium.com/the-ferenstein-wire/the-birth-and-death-o...

Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#72
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed this myself watching my friends young cousin browse Youtube.. his feed was half clickbait 20-something white guys yelling at you to subscribe Minecraft videos, half perverted (such as Spiderman kissing Elsa from Frozen) or oddly gory children videos like the ones described in the article. If I ever have kids, there's no way in hell I'm letting them run free with an iPad or iPhone. I know it's the "easy way…

You may make a different choice after years of being unable to do anything but give 100% of your attention to the child. Someone needs to cook & clean, or go to work, after all. In the "old days" you'd just cut your kid loose into the environment. Well, these days, TV and iPads are part of the environment, and YouTube along with it. I'm not saying you wouldn't make boundaries. Boundaries are important. But that may a…

You can also give them an iPad in Airplane mode.

Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#73
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you just do it the old fashioned way - teach them to read and give them books. If they can use an iPad they can read.

My child was competently operating an iPad before he could talk or walk

Mine too, and it is amazing. Would yours also try to touch the TV to swipe it?

My 4 year old is just now learning to use a mouse, but she's been at a touchscreen for over 3 years.

Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#74
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you just do it the old fashioned way - teach them to read and give them books. If they can use an iPad they can read.

My child was competently operating an iPad before he could talk or walk

I've witnessed this myself, many times. I honestly find the proficiency of iPad finger gestures in children I had one family tell me they learned about five finger swipes from their 1 year old daughter.

Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#75
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beheading was public spectacle up until very recently, kids are less distressed by seeing violence than you might think. If anything it's people with problems that tend to search for such things rather than such videos causing something.

People should read the old, original Brothers Grim stories. Plenty of that was pretty, ahem, grim. Over the centuries it's been sanitized and Disneyfied, but the primal drives that fascinated by that sort of thing have not gone away.

German censorship around books for children was quite tight actually. Not all of that was for little children, a lot of it effectively scary stories for older ones.

Also half todays cartoons would not pass neither comic code nor restrictions at early movies.

Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#76
post #19

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> Thankfully they've taken to some PBS shows like Daniel Tiger and Thomas I recommend tracking down some old-school Mister Rogers' Neighborhood if you can. Totally engages my 4-year-old, and she actually talks to him when prompted, which she does with no other children's show. The pace is sedate and the shots long (like, really long, in a way I didn't appreciate as a kid—that had to be difficult to film). They make T…

All television from the 60s and 70s had extremely long shots by today's standards. Just for fun pick any show on any channel with modern content. Drama, comedy, even news broadcasts -- the average shot duration is only 3.5 seconds. SECONDS! Not only that, but the weird camera angles, and the infuriating "shakey cam" (handled camera being purposely jiggled) is predominant in children's programming, and used to keep ou…

What's with the extremely short shot duration? I noticed that in some movies too. It was incredibly frustrating. Is is some film technique to make me feel what it's like to be OCD?

I just assumed the movie was so poorly directed that they were left with stitching together a bunch of crap.

Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#77

In the past couple of years there has been a huge uptick in YT content targeting very young children. The feedback loop is so tight that many of the creators have converged on designing some of the most visceral (and disturbing) material that appeals to kids at a reptilian level. Think about how genuinely weird little kids are. Sometimes they do stuff that would be scary if it wasn't just a minute of innocent pretend…

> I've spent the last two decades researching Theosophy, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, the Bavarian Illuminati and Western Occultism.

Not a great source though.

Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#78
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did, and now this is permanently burned into my brain: "Daddy finger, daddy finger, where are you? Here I am, here I am, how do you do?"

Note to self, don't spend quality time with children until they hit imprinting age, beyond dinner and reading at bedtime. ;p

Wanna cringe annoying and plain incredibly boring quotes from children books? Pretty sure I could dig some dumb kiddy book around ...

Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#79
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a look at Youtube Kids ( https://kids.youtube.com/ )

Looks interesting. How well does this app prevent weird/disturbing/bad videos?

Seconding the others, it's really great in comparison to plain YouTube.

Re: Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed with YouTube

#80

I was reading this article and viewing the videos while at work. I'm a 25 years old looking at a video of three little girls playing, while in a meeting. I'm sure now I'm the perv of the office now.

It is wrong that a dude who watch video about kids or enjoys their company has to worry about that.
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