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YouTube has become the world's nanny

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Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#2
Re >> "Plenty of parents have the same debate in their own minds, or with partners and friends: Is letting kids use screens all right, and if so for how long?"

As an anecdote, my mom would only allow me 15 minutes at a time of Tetris on the household GameBoy. My views on kids & screentime is pretty conservative, especially when they're younger, but my mom was down-right draconian!

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#3
Nope, nope nope.

My kid is 10 and still doesn't know a single Youtuber by name and doesn't really watch Youtube. We did try Youtube Kids at one point, but it was just 99% toy ads masquerading as authentic content.

Netflix has a pretty good age limiter and well produced TV-shows. Disney+ has Bluey and a ton of other content. AppleTV+ has a few good ones too, but not as much as the two big ones.

Paying the few coins for a streaming service w/ age limits is highly preferable to risking your kid ending up on some Elsagate[0] video because of the algorithm. Or ending up in a parasocial relationship to some screaming jumpcutting Youtuber who shills their merch on literal children.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsagate

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#5

The way children scream for my tablet time worse than they would for a bottle is terrifying. All those dopamine manipulation techniques made for adults are cleaning up with kids.

Frankly, kids want what you have. If it's bad, don't use it yourself!

Having kids was the final trigger to make me get rid of my smartphone, although I admit this is an extreme step.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#8
post #6

Why not just take ur kids on a hike on the weekend or read some books? Both are free (parks and libraries) and better than burning your kid’s eyeballs. Update: nobody wants to put in effort. No surprise there, poor kids :(

Easy answer, it requires effort.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#9
post #6

Why not just take ur kids on a hike on the weekend or read some books? Both are free (parks and libraries) and better than burning your kid’s eyeballs. Update: nobody wants to put in effort. No surprise there, poor kids :(

Because I can't fit a 3 hour hike in the car ride to school.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#10
post #6

Why not just take ur kids on a hike on the weekend or read some books? Both are free (parks and libraries) and better than burning your kid’s eyeballs. Update: nobody wants to put in effort. No surprise there, poor kids :(

This is not mutually exclusive with youtube time. Even if you spend a lot of time outside and read for full hour every day, you wont do these things all the time. Partly because it would drive you crazy and you need to rest too and partly because you need to cook, clean, take shower etc.
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