Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

googleblog.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 74 posts

Re: Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

#11

Post by keeran »

impostervt wrote: post #6

My kids, 5 and 2, have really been into these weird toy unboxing videos recently. They're fine with me from a "ok for kids" point of view, though I don't see the attraction. Anyway, I just wonder if these type of videos will be available. example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_e8CPuVepA

My son (3) became obsessed with watching these Kinder adverts, to the point where I had to delete the YouTube app and put him in cold turkey until he regained interest in the (brilliant) BBC CBeebies content.

If this app/service can strip out all of that crap I'd pay significantly more than I do for most apps. Easily.

Re: Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

#12

Post by coldpie »

famousactress wrote: post #3

I can't find mention of whether or not there are ads. Ads are a deal-breaker for me with the kidlet. Currently whenever she asks to "See ostriches" or "People throwing fish!" (we brought her to Pike's Place market in Seattle and the kid was oddly obsesseed) it's a dice roll whether we sit through a Lexus ad. I'd happily pay a modest amount for a product like this one provided she doesn't have to see ads (regardless o…

On PC, AdBlock works great on YouTube. If you're using a mobile app, yeah, I think you're SOL for now. I also would pay a monthly fee for an ad-free YouTube.

Re: Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

#13

Post by impostervt »

vyrotek wrote: post #10
impostervt wrote: post #6

My kids, 5 and 2, have really been into these weird toy unboxing videos recently. They're fine with me from a "ok for kids" point of view, though I don't see the attraction. Anyway, I just wonder if these type of videos will be available. example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_e8CPuVepA

These things are seriously blowing up! I've talked to so many parents who mention that their kids are hooked on these things. These kids just watch some random toy be unwrapped then hit the next suggested video for hours. I also hear stories about how then they beg their parents for the toy. They're just really long commercials. My kids don't seem as interested but it might be they're a bit old for them now. I have n…

Ya, I don't mind the unboxing videos, but the other day my 5 year old had somehow gotten from Frozen sing alongs to a weird manga-version of Let it Go. I figured from that point she was probably only a few clicks a way from really weird videos and made her go back to the eggs...

Re: Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

#14

Post by impostervt »

thorntonbf wrote: post #7

I realize that full curation probably isn't possible as this thing scales, but as a parent, this thing will live or die based on the content they allow into the stream. I love watching videos of people building stuff with my kids. Moreover, I love watching the creativeness that some of the videos inspire in my kids. Unfortunately, to date, I have had to preview most of the content my children see on YouTube so that t…

There's probably an app-idea in there. Maybe an app that costs video creators some small amount, say $5, that gets their video in a "for-kids" video app. The $5 pays to have your video reviewed and tagged so that parents can filter what they want their kid to see.

As a parent, I would definitely pay for that app/service.

Re: Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

#15

Post by swamp40 »

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The lack of curation on YouTube has been a source of frustration in our house for a long time.

The kids just scroll down the list on the side of the viewer and hit whatever video they think looks interesting.

Then the next thing you hear is swearing, and there's no effective way to stop that from showing up on 100,000 other kid's feeds. (And it would be so easy to implement!)

Our kids love the variety of YouTube. Even Netflix is too slow and inconvenient for them.

Re: Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

#16

Post by avalaunch »

thorntonbf wrote: post #7

I realize that full curation probably isn't possible as this thing scales, but as a parent, this thing will live or die based on the content they allow into the stream. I love watching videos of people building stuff with my kids. Moreover, I love watching the creativeness that some of the videos inspire in my kids. Unfortunately, to date, I have had to preview most of the content my children see on YouTube so that t…

I don't watch much on YouTube so they may already do some of this but it seems to me like this would be an easy problem to solve if they so desired. Add a rating system where the content creators rate themselves and an easy way for viewers to flag them as incorrectly rated. Add to that a confidence rating of how likely a video is correctly rated (based on number of views without flagging) and you could confidently let your kids view appropriately rated material.

Re: Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

#17

Post by jonnathanson »

thorntonbf wrote: post #7

I realize that full curation probably isn't possible as this thing scales, but as a parent, this thing will live or die based on the content they allow into the stream. I love watching videos of people building stuff with my kids. Moreover, I love watching the creativeness that some of the videos inspire in my kids. Unfortunately, to date, I have had to preview most of the content my children see on YouTube so that t…

This will absolutely require some human filtering, even if only as a backstop. That parents feel safe and comfortable with the content -- and all "adjacencies," such as comments, ads, and so forth -- is critical.

I'm not sure what their content strategy will be, but by way of inference from public record (job listings, this blog post, etc.), I would guess that they're priming the pump with content from established, kid-friendly publishers. They want to start off strong, with proven commodities, before opening the floodgates. There might also be a qualification process for new creators and publishers that is more rigorous than the process for all-purpose YouTube; that's just my speculation, though.

Re: Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

#20

Post by zanek »

impostervt wrote: post #6

My kids, 5 and 2, have really been into these weird toy unboxing videos recently. They're fine with me from a "ok for kids" point of view, though I don't see the attraction. Anyway, I just wonder if these type of videos will be available. example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_e8CPuVepA

My 3 year old son loves these videos as well (especially the toy car unboxing videos on Youtube). I'm glad someone linked to an article about it. It seems really odd to me that he loves them, but he finally seems to be over them after a 4 month stint of always seeking them out, trying to spell out the words to find them, etc

Cant believe some of these toy unboxing videos have +70 million views, insane

Post reply on HN