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YouTube has become the world's nanny

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Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#41

As a new(ish) parent, I'm astonished at how readily most parents hand off their kids over to YouTube/tablet/phone. I even saw a stroller the other day with a permanent mount for the phone. I haven't banned YouTube (yet), but I have limited it almost completely due to concerns about the long-term effects of extended use from such an early age. Those concerns will only deepen as my son gets older - there's a lot of goo…

I’m also horrified by the responses of parents here who are lax with YouTube, even to a slight degree. It’s like they feel that they are morally bound to find a middle-ground stance despite not having a good mechanistic explanation for why YT is OK even at small dosages, given how it has already radicalized people and impacted the global political order on the basis of fake news? Why isn’t the concern far more sweeping? Like, what harm can erring on the side of caution actually do and not letting your kids access YT before their cognitive development has progressed far enough so that they have self-control and have explored their own interests without the interference of internet culture?

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#42
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>My kid is 10 and still doesn't know a single Youtuber by name Authentic curiosity - does your child not go to a normal school? In my experience you can literally detach your home from the internet and live without electricity, but the second your kids go to school they instantly know all the latest fads and videos and what not. To make it to 10 without being at least somewhat familiar with youtube through that expo…

[flagged]

If they have school age children and their children are unaware of these things (or at least the parents believe that to be true) then either the parents are dumb or their children are incredible at deceiving their parents and possibly showing early signs of being psychopaths.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#43

As a new(ish) parent, I'm astonished at how readily most parents hand off their kids over to YouTube/tablet/phone. I even saw a stroller the other day with a permanent mount for the phone. I haven't banned YouTube (yet), but I have limited it almost completely due to concerns about the long-term effects of extended use from such an early age. Those concerns will only deepen as my son gets older - there's a lot of goo…

I have had good experience with using YT Kids:

1. set it to approved content only because the recommendations are horrifying.

2. from the parents account on YouTube mobile app use the share menu -> share with kids when I find reasonable and good content for them.

They watch a lot of JPL documentaries, BBC nature documentaries, crafsman videos, kurzgesagt videos.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#44

As a new(ish) parent, I'm astonished at how readily most parents hand off their kids over to YouTube/tablet/phone. I even saw a stroller the other day with a permanent mount for the phone. I haven't banned YouTube (yet), but I have limited it almost completely due to concerns about the long-term effects of extended use from such an early age. Those concerns will only deepen as my son gets older - there's a lot of goo…

I’m also horrified by the responses of parents here who are lax with YouTube, even to a slight degree. It’s like they feel that they are morally bound to find a middle-ground stance despite not having a good mechanistic explanation for why YT is OK even at small dosages, given how it has already radicalized people and impacted the global political order on the basis of fake news? Why isn’t the concern far more sweepi…

> why YT is OK even at small dosages, given how it has already radicalized people and impacted the global political order on the basis of fake news? Why isn’t the concern far more sweeping?

That concern comes in during puberty and above, not when the kids are small. When they are 16-23, not when they are 1-9 years old. You have significantly less control at that time and crucially, should be transitioning to loosing control. They are getting ready for independent living or college.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#45
There’s a deeper issue I personally find more interesting; there are an awful lot of parents who don’t really want children. Maybe they like the idea of being a parent. Maybe they just found themselves there. Maybe they think this is what they’re supposed to do. There’s no doubt a multitude of reasons.

The window for shaping what kind of people your children become is surprisingly short. It’s largely over by the time they start elementary school. It’s completely over by high school.

I wonder how many people are just using YouTube as a stopgap until they’re children are mini-adults, which is what many parents seem to want (IME).

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#46
post #42
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

If they have school age children and their children are unaware of these things (or at least the parents believe that to be true) then either the parents are dumb or their children are incredible at deceiving their parents and possibly showing early signs of being psychopaths.

Or just the kids learned parents react negatively when saying certain words and do not say them. That is not a sign of being psychopath, that is sign of being neurotypical.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#47

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!

I've found over and over again that prohibition and punishment tend to backfire. Children and adults need a reason so compelling that it will inspire them to not pursue cheap thrills at the expense of something better. Otherwise, they'll take up drinking, watching TV, eating way too much junk food and masturbating. Why shouldn't they? They feel really good!

Speculative, but I think that draconian measures only backfire when the parent-child relationship isn’t trusting and loving in the first place, i.e. if you’ve given your kids reasons to hate your parenting beyond your restrictions on their screen time. When I was a kid I had friends who were pretty strict about their internet access, but they did not mind because they have a good relationship with their parents anyway—they play sports together, share interests, work on the same hobbies or weekend projects, etcetera. Maybe this is what today’s millenial parents are lacking in, in the first place.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#48
post #23

If I have to sum up everything about kid related entertainment I have read on here, it would be: - Games of the kind we have played or we like to play now are good. - The new markets kind of games are totally worst thing ever and steal money. - Arcades and collectible card games we used to spend all our money into were totally different thing. - The kiddy shows we grew up with were best thing ever. Nothing beats them…

Hypocrisy in itself doesn’t invalidate the point about the modern entertainment stuff being problematic. Even if what we grew up with had its own problems.

I was not pointing to hypocrisy. I was pointing to nostalgia and catastrophization being primary drivers of these discussions.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#49
For people cooking alone with a kid. How do you entertain them while cooking without screentime? Kid is 16 months. Too old to lie still, and too young to help out in any capacity without getting injured.

Edit: Letting them play with utensils gives me about 2-3 minutes.

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