YouTube is huge with children, but with over 5 billion videos on YouTube (and that number growing at a staggering pace) we can understand the potential for children to see the very best and worst of society.
But increasingly we’re seeing a rise in so-called influencers, usually described as somebody who has established credibility in a specific industry or genre, e.g. make-up, toys, gaming etc. Many of these influencers are genuine, down to earth people who simply want to share good advice and make an honest living. However, for us parents the clue is in the name, influencer; a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product by promoting or recommending items. Equally it may be to influence a behaviour or carry out a challenge. As with anything like this there are the good, the not so good, and those that wish to exploit children.
YouTube can be an amazing platform for children and the newer version of YouTube Kids (for children 12 and under) gives parents much more granular control over what children are seeing, but we can’t take our eye off the ball as there is always the potential for something unsavoury, whether that is inappropriate content or people (real or virtual) trying to influence the children to say, do or buy something. Be pro-active with your children:
It all comes down to critical thinking, the same logic we apply into any area of our lives; we ask ourselves simple questions, such as:
• What is the purpose of this image/video?
• What are they trying to do, or influence me with?
• Why are they talking about this product?
• Watch a few of their favourite channels with them and discuss why they favour those
channels. Talk to them about critical thinking using simple questions such as those above.
• If they are using YouTube to view videos about their hobbies, search together and discuss why you feel certain videos or channels may be inappropriate. Children need to know what the boundaries are, and they will only know if you tell them.
• Browse through their YouTube history every now and again just to satisfy yourself that
nothing is untoward.
• Let them know to come to you if something isn’t right; that they won’t be judged or have
their device removed from them.