Many households have access to YouTube. We watch funny videos, learn about history, and figure out how to fix our sink. Kids watch YouTube as we do, and they do it in much the same way as we do. There are many television shows, music videos, and other forms of entertainment available for kids. Unfortunately, there is a lot of dangerous content on YouTube that does not have many child restrictions.
Youtube remains teenagers’ favorite social media platform, despite the constant emergence of new platforms. On the other hand, disturbing stuff on YouTube is all the rage. Even though YouTube Kids is better, it should not be utilized to consume content in a hands-off manner. Despite YouTube’s best efforts, explicit and hazardous content slips through the cracks.
Harmful content such as the momo challenge and other violent messaging that interrupts children’s shows to promote self-harm makes it more critical to keep your child’s screen free of harmful and inappropriate content.
How can you, as a parent, help? Talk to your children and explain that they may come across things that are improper or do not fully comprehend and that they should inform you if this occurs. Learn how to set parental control in the YouTube app and the sorts of content to prohibit. Despite the lack of a universal solution, there are several ways you can protect your child from inappropriate content.
How to protect your kids from YouTube danger?
So, as a parent, what can you do to keep your child safe on YouTube?
YouTube Kids provides features that keep your child safe while using it. It includes additional safety features than standard YouTube because it is targeted at young children. Let’s look at a few.
Teach your children about online safety.
Children must have age-appropriate discussions about the nature of the internet to stay safe online. Advertisements are often false or exaggerated, much seemingly benign content is marketing, predators can impersonate online identities, downloading files can lead to malware infections, and hackers spoof real websites to steal user information. The dangers of screen time can also be openly discussed with children, leading to them being more cautious about their devices.
Use YouTube Kids’ parental control option.
First and foremost, only watch videos on YouTube Kids. The second item on the agenda is to make parent-approved content available on YouTube Kids. Because YouTube Kids doesn’t always prevent inappropriate content, it’s a good idea to set up some protection just in case. Parental control on YouTube allows you to choose which videos and channels your child has access to. You decide what they can and cannot see if you want them to have access to 3 or 4 channels. Kids won’t be able to look for other videos once you enable parent-approved content.
Use YouTube kids
YouTube Kids is available as an app or as a web-based service. You can create a profile by logging in with your YouTube/Google account or using the YouTube Kids website without a profile. It will be much easier to ban particular channels, create curated playlists, and follow your child’s YouTube activity if you create a profile for them.
Disable search
You can be sure that youngsters can’t wander around YouTube Kids on their own by turning off the search. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click the Lock icon in the lower right corner of the screen.
- If a passcode has not been set, enter your passcode or solve the math question.
- Select the Settings to gear from the drop-down menu.
- Select your child (Note: You must repeat this process for each child you want to set this up for under your account), and when prompted, enter your Google password.
- “Allow searches” should be deselected.
Block inappropriate content
It’s always possible that you’ll come across a problematic video, even if you’ve put some extra security measures in place to make your child’s viewing experience safer. If you come across a video that you believe is inappropriate for your child, you may report it and have it blocked using the app.
While watching the dubious video, you can click the three dots in the upper right corner. If you choose to report it, you can do so for various reasons, including bad audio, indecent graphics, or something else entirely. You can also choose to block the video so that it does not appear on your child’s app.
Create custom playlists
This is a time-consuming chore, but it’s also one of the most effective ways to ensure that your children don’t encounter inappropriate material. However, there’s no way to ensure that your children aren’t straying from the playlists you create.
Making playlists with your children is also a fun method to do this. This gives them a sense of ownership, and you can be confident that the videos on your playlists are ones that your children want to watch.
Conclusion
Some parents prefer to use alternative content apps like Noggin, or PBS Kids, knowing that the source regulates the content.
And while that is one option, it is not necessarily the best. Numerous technology solutions address YouTube’s difficulties, but nothing beats good old dialogue with your children. Interact with them and find out what they’re watching. Engage them in dialogue and assist them in learning what is and is not proper.
While it can be easy to be alarmed by the potential dangers out there, we can take advantage of these opportunities to teach our children how to use technology appropriately.
