Doctor Warns YouTube Kids Isn’t Safe — Here’s Why
By Movieguide® Contributor
YouTube calls its YouTube Kids platform “family-friendly,” but one doctor warns that some nefarious content on it requires extra parental vigilance.
Dr. Shilpa, a pediatrician on Instagram, warns parents about the safety of YouTube Kids. She advises “parents not to allow their kids to use the app without adjusting the settings manually, due to a lot of not-so-child-friendly content that’s being viewed,” Parents reported.
READ MORE: GOOGLE TO PAY $170 MILLION SETTLEMENT FOR VIOLATING CHILDREN’S PRIVACY ON YOUTUBE
“If there is one thing that I hate as a pediatric neurologist, it’s this YouTube Kids,” Shilpa said in an Instagram video. “If you follow me, you know that I am not anti-screen time. I just don’t think that that’s realistic. There is a time and place for screen time. I have lots of videos on this, but I am anti letting children access YouTube Kids without a lot of adjustments.”
YouTube Kids was “built to be a fun, family-friendly place for kids and families. The YouTube Kids app has popular children’s videos and diverse new content, delivered in a way that’s easy to use for children.”
However, Dr. Shilpa explained that there is very little monitoring for YouTube Kids.
“It’s not hard for anyone to upload anything on there and say it’s branded for kids. If you’re thinking, ‘Oh, my child only goes on YouTube when I’m in the room and monitoring them,’ there are so many fakes out there that are made to look like kid-friendly cartoons,” she explained. “You look over and think, ‘Oh, they’re watching a Disney show,’ when, in fact, they are not.”
“These shows have explicit, gory, nothing you would ever want your child to see material,” Shilpa cautioned.
She shared one example that she witnessed in her own clinic.
“I once had a young child in the room while his sibling was being evaluated, who was sitting and watching his iPad quietly,” she wrote int he caption. “The evaluation was loud so we weren’t able to hear what he was watching until the portion that I was examining and listening to his siblings heart and lungs and the whole room quieted and we loudly heard, ‘shh kids don’t tell your parents but I’ll tell you how babies are made and it isn’t from a stork!’
“The mom and I stopped and stared at each other, shocked,” the doctor continued. “It turned out he was watching one of those kids playing with toys shows that had just showed up on YouTube auto play and the images on the screens were definitely not kid friendly. We didn’t think to report it and just turned off the iPad, but I wish I had!”
However, parents can take some steps to make YouTube Kids safer and only give their kids access to pre-approved things, which Shilpa says “should be the default setting for YouTube Kids.”
After creating an account, the steps are:
- Open the YouTube Kids app
- Select Settings
- Enter your passcode or complete the multiplication problem
- Select your child’s profile (create beforehand)
- Select Edit Settings
- Select Approved Content Only
- Select Add or Remove Videos
- Add the videos or channels you want to allow (if you’re adding channels, make sure it’s the official one)
It’s concerning that disturbing content and bad actors target children through seemingly innocent platforms like YouTube Kids, but parents have the tools needed to keep them safe.
“Parents should be actively involved in what their child is watching, monitoring the content, limiting the content, and then having discussions about what was watched,” Dr. Kim Van Dusen advised. “These boundaries are not meant to restrict or keep children in a bubble, but keep the content they are being exposed to at their developmental level.”
READ MORE: WARNING: SOME CHILDREN’S VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE HAVE DISTURBING CONTENT HIDING INSIDE
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