Above: Illustration via Safety Detectives.
There’s no question that YouTube is an enormous draw for children using the Internet and it’s also a problem, because of the range of material that’s to be found on the website.
As Ben Martens notes in his thorough and well-researched post on the issue…
It’s almost impossible to comprehend this massive scale, but one thing is certain — every type of video is represented on YouTube, with content producers desperate to earn enough views so that their videos can start to generate ad revenue. If people are clicking on videos of Elsa from Frozen having sex with Spider-Man, then creators will pump out thousands of similar videos, and some of those videos are bound to sneak past YouTube’s algorithm.
Much of what he’s discovered jibes with my own experiences with the site and a young child’s exploration of it and it’s worth reading. At core, parents need to be aware that parental controls on most platforms expire at 13 and aren’t completely effective even before that.
The only true prophylactic for the inevitable discovery of inappropriate material is open and frank discussion of the nature of the Internet and how children should conduct themselves when using services found there.
