YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#61

Post by challengly » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

j4yav wrote: post #6

Curated and at least semi-professionally produced content, like PBS kids, is infinitely better in terms of providing consistently good content. I think YouTube is at its heart fundamentally incompatible with providing only high quality enriching content. Everyone being able to make content means there are gems that would never otherwise get made, and also vast wastelands of garbage to sort through, or get dumped into…

PBS Kids was great the last time I saw it. Have they managed to stay neutral and not become politicized like so much of the media in the US?

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#62

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

spicybright wrote: post #53

2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people at Google/Youtube really make it hard for quality content to succeed most of the time and their beloved algorithms mostly just boil down to "If a person clicks X, bombard them with as much things as close to X as possible from now on". (Also their obsession with "engagement" which translates to outrage, but I hope this is less relevant in Youtube Kids...) The danger for kids also stems from this in my opin…

Kids should only be able to view content vetted by a human. Full stop. Too bad it's never going to happen.

[deleted]

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#63

Post by c3534l » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

drewcon wrote: post #21

Can confirm. There is a strain of video (below) on there that is just like perceptual candy to kids. And there are LOADS of these videos in slightly different versions. My own anecdote: Our 2 year old found these videos (3 years ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7IsNFDtG4U&list=PLHZrFxrJbt... At first we were like "seems fine, colors and shapes...keeps him engaged". After a month or two he could just stare slack…

Having never seen any of these videos, that video is weirdly engaging. It has something logical to it, but its way more abstract than a true story. Its actually really fascinating that there is some thread to follow along with and a certain amount of surprise even if it is largely meaningless. It makes me think that once you've memorized all the narrative and visual tropes of western media, your bog standard reality TV is probably as intellectually engaging as videos like these. Which isn't to say its okay for kids, but that you probably shouldn't be watching daytime TV any time soon if you value your own brain as much as you value your kids'.

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#64

Post by spicybright » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

abhishekbasu wrote: post #51

j4yav wrote: post #6

Curated and at least semi-professionally produced content, like PBS kids, is infinitely better in terms of providing consistently good content. I think YouTube is at its heart fundamentally incompatible with providing only high quality enriching content. Everyone being able to make content means there are gems that would never otherwise get made, and also vast wastelands of garbage to sort through, or get dumped into…

> I think YouTube is at its heart fundamentally incompatible with providing only high quality enriching content. I think this is in some ways similar to reddit. While there are some great threads from time-to-time, it is a way for people to quickly vent/amuse themselves.

Once I un-subscribed from all the defaults and main stream subs, content got wildly better for me. I still appreciate being able to pick what subreddits I see, instead of a big prediction engine pulling from different subs I may like.

Huge ones like /r/askreddit are like tabloids. Same with any big /r/*advice. Niche subreddits are so good though.

Ex: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#65

Post by jariel » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #46

drewcon wrote: post #21

Can confirm. There is a strain of video (below) on there that is just like perceptual candy to kids. And there are LOADS of these videos in slightly different versions. My own anecdote: Our 2 year old found these videos (3 years ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7IsNFDtG4U&list=PLHZrFxrJbt... At first we were like "seems fine, colors and shapes...keeps him engaged". After a month or two he could just stare slack…

The people at Google/Youtube really make it hard for quality content to succeed most of the time and their beloved algorithms mostly just boil down to "If a person clicks X, bombard them with as much things as close to X as possible from now on". (Also their obsession with "engagement" which translates to outrage, but I hope this is less relevant in Youtube Kids...) The danger for kids also stems from this in my opin…

It's uncanny how bad the major players are at this.

You can click here [1] to see your supposed 'interests'.

It's uncannily bad.

'Combat Sports' , 'Boating', 'Construction and Power Tools' and 'Cricket' (!) apparently among interests they think I haven though they are subjects which don't cross my mind.

I don't think I've even thought about 'Cricket' other than for them to tell me it's 'an interest'.

[1] https://adssettings.google.com/u/0/authenticated

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#66

Post by raunak » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

IAmWorried wrote: post #50

drewcon wrote: post #21

Can confirm. There is a strain of video (below) on there that is just like perceptual candy to kids. And there are LOADS of these videos in slightly different versions. My own anecdote: Our 2 year old found these videos (3 years ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7IsNFDtG4U&list=PLHZrFxrJbt... At first we were like "seems fine, colors and shapes...keeps him engaged". After a month or two he could just stare slack…

Am I the only one who doesn't see what's so creepy about this? It's a bunch of colors, and cars being dipped into the colors, with dumb music and sfx. Is it really so harmful? Honestly curious as I don't have kids of my own, so not sure.

It’s not content that kids are learning anything from. It’s the same reason why so many parents use a tablet as a pacifier for toddlers - it keeps them quiet, but it’s just adding nothing of value.

As someone said below, even a show like Loony Tunes would be better, but preferably kids should be watching things such as PBS Kids.

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#67

Post by trentnix » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

sigh

Government nanny pearl-clutching over children's entertainment is a time-honored tradition. They said comic books rotted kids brains in the 50s. They said He-Man was too violent in the 80s. They said video games were training killers in the 90s. They said animated shows had too many advertisements, introduced regulations to limit how much time could be allocated to commercials for animated shows, and ultimately put the final nail in the coffin of the multi-generational tradition of Saturday Morning Cartoons.

Instead of letting parents decide what their kids can and can't watch, the government feels the need to do something about the lack of appropriately wholesome content.

My kids watch Youtube Kids. Some of it is pretty terrible - fast food directly to their brains. Some of it is great - it stretches their imagination and vocabulary and skills.

And because my kids are kids, sometimes they eat actual fast food too. And consuming virtual fast-food or real fast-food is not anyone else's problem.

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#68

Post by jowsie » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

drewcon wrote: post #21

Can confirm. There is a strain of video (below) on there that is just like perceptual candy to kids. And there are LOADS of these videos in slightly different versions. My own anecdote: Our 2 year old found these videos (3 years ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7IsNFDtG4U&list=PLHZrFxrJbt... At first we were like "seems fine, colors and shapes...keeps him engaged". After a month or two he could just stare slack…

Folding Ideas has a good video on these specific kind of content farm videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKp2gikIkD8

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#69

Post by duxup » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

duncan-donuts wrote: post #52

duxup wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup those videos are exactly what caused me to swear of YouTube too... just weird memorizing content. No YouTube anymore. PBS Kids from there on.

I can’t tell if you’re also saying no to PBS kids or not, but based on my own observations as a parent I have to say PBS kids (and PBS in general) is the best kids programming out there. Full stop.

Valid point, I wrote that poorly. PBS Kids is awesome.

Re: YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers

#70

Post by dmlorenzetti » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

lordnacho wrote: post #9

It's basically correct, there's very little of value on YT kids. It's junk food ADHD content, continuously. Just crappy content like ripoff songs and kids playing with toys, a giant toy advert. My little one used to go nuts when I turned it off. I've had to get rid of it in my house. Standard YT has some interesting channels that you can learn a lot from, but it's worth it for me to PiHole anything youtube anyway. No…

> Now I just curate interesting videos and the kids have to watch it with me.

I also curate content to watch with my daughter. It started long before she had access to a computer, because it made for a nice pocket of time to share fun moments in the evenings.

We call them "Watch With XXX" (where XXX is my daughter's nickname). When I find something I think she'll like, I email it to myself with the subject "wwXXX". An email filter shuffles them off to a separate mailbox. She regularly asks if I have any new WWXXX's, or if we can watch an old favorite again.