<story><title>YouTube has become the world&apos;s nanny</title><url>https://qz.com/youtube-has-become-the-worlds-nanny-1850047610</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>furyg3</author><text>Curation is key and there need to be better tools.  I strongly limit my kid&amp;#x27;s screen time, and was pleasantly surprised by the PBS kids video app (and to some extent the games app).  I felt very comfortable leaving her alone with that at the designated screen times, as most programs had at least &lt;i&gt;some&lt;/i&gt; educational component... or at least had some generic but positive moral lessons.  And (key!) she gets personal choice in what she watches, out of a curated garden.&lt;p&gt;As she&amp;#x27;s gotten older these programs are not cutting it, though, and she is asking for Netflix more and more.  The problem is that the vast majority of kids shows are just garbage.  Basically the equivalent of sitcoms or (worse) dramas about girls being cliquey or mean or whatever.  I&amp;#x27;m looking for another garden with a wide variety of bigger kid shows that have some positive qualities to them.&lt;p&gt;Sure, there are great programs on there, but I wish I could pre-select those programs and give her a selection out of them.  Netflix lets me set age limits and &lt;i&gt;block&lt;/i&gt; programs, but I&amp;#x27;d rather spend some time selecting 20-30 shows&amp;#x2F;movies that allows her to feel free while still giving me some control</text></item><item><author>OscarTheGrinch</author><text>As a parent, screen time vs no screen time is a fine line that we have to continually renegotiate.&lt;p&gt;Screens can be great, there is so much good information out there that can enrich our lives. I wouldn&amp;#x27;t go the &amp;quot;no screens ever&amp;quot; route because that&amp;#x27;s just being a luddite,  robbing them of the change to experience, and acquire expertise in, the digital world that they will be interacting with for the rest of their lives.&lt;p&gt;However, I am not letting my kid roam the internet, there be dragons. In particular YouTube&amp;#x27;s recommendation algorithm, even  in their YouTube kids app, seems to default to serving up horrible brain melting crap instead of anything pedagogical. I am against kids content that is designed solely to entrance and keep them sitting still, it&amp;#x27;s the equivalent of digital candy floss. For example, the whole &amp;quot;surprise egg&amp;quot; trend, which basically is a video version of the lootbox &amp;#x2F; Deal Or No Deal, mechanic, is some of the most popular and recommended videos to children on youtube. 
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;results?sp=mAEB&amp;amp;search_query=surprise+egg&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;results?sp=mAEB&amp;amp;search_query=surpris...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;All three of the frist vids we were served by YouTube kids were surprise egg videos. Hard uninstall.&lt;p&gt;Curating content and setting limits on screen time is your job as a parent in this era. We cannot outsource this responsibility to companies and AIs because there is simply no way an algorithm find the stuff that is just right for your child.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>MountainMan1312</author><text>&amp;quot;Designated screen time&amp;quot; makes my stomach curl. That&amp;#x27;s a surefire way to make sure a kid who has interest never develops any skills and resents you for ruining a career opportunity later down the road (I know from experience).&lt;p&gt;I find it odd that most people in this thread are equating &amp;quot;screen time&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;watching videos&amp;quot;. My parents were like that, they never understood that mucking around in OSes and writing crappy software is a totally different thing from watching YouTube videos about eggs.&lt;p&gt;I think you should modify your limits on screen time. Make limits on mindless entertainment kind of screen time, not on productive learning screen time. I&amp;#x27;d consider it abusive to force your kid off the computer when they&amp;#x27;re in the middle of configuring a kernel &amp;quot;for their own good&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Like I said, I know from experience. I feel like I&amp;#x27;m a decade behind because my parents thought I was &amp;quot;playing&amp;quot; on the computer instead of learning valuable professional skills which is what I Was doing. I doubt you&amp;#x27;re actually that kind of person, but to a point they were suspicious of my attempts to learn those things. They thought I was up to no good because I wasn&amp;#x27;t mindlessly glued to YouTube or whatever they do on their computers.</text></comment>
<story><title>YouTube has become the world&apos;s nanny</title><url>https://qz.com/youtube-has-become-the-worlds-nanny-1850047610</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>furyg3</author><text>Curation is key and there need to be better tools.  I strongly limit my kid&amp;#x27;s screen time, and was pleasantly surprised by the PBS kids video app (and to some extent the games app).  I felt very comfortable leaving her alone with that at the designated screen times, as most programs had at least &lt;i&gt;some&lt;/i&gt; educational component... or at least had some generic but positive moral lessons.  And (key!) she gets personal choice in what she watches, out of a curated garden.&lt;p&gt;As she&amp;#x27;s gotten older these programs are not cutting it, though, and she is asking for Netflix more and more.  The problem is that the vast majority of kids shows are just garbage.  Basically the equivalent of sitcoms or (worse) dramas about girls being cliquey or mean or whatever.  I&amp;#x27;m looking for another garden with a wide variety of bigger kid shows that have some positive qualities to them.&lt;p&gt;Sure, there are great programs on there, but I wish I could pre-select those programs and give her a selection out of them.  Netflix lets me set age limits and &lt;i&gt;block&lt;/i&gt; programs, but I&amp;#x27;d rather spend some time selecting 20-30 shows&amp;#x2F;movies that allows her to feel free while still giving me some control</text></item><item><author>OscarTheGrinch</author><text>As a parent, screen time vs no screen time is a fine line that we have to continually renegotiate.&lt;p&gt;Screens can be great, there is so much good information out there that can enrich our lives. I wouldn&amp;#x27;t go the &amp;quot;no screens ever&amp;quot; route because that&amp;#x27;s just being a luddite,  robbing them of the change to experience, and acquire expertise in, the digital world that they will be interacting with for the rest of their lives.&lt;p&gt;However, I am not letting my kid roam the internet, there be dragons. In particular YouTube&amp;#x27;s recommendation algorithm, even  in their YouTube kids app, seems to default to serving up horrible brain melting crap instead of anything pedagogical. I am against kids content that is designed solely to entrance and keep them sitting still, it&amp;#x27;s the equivalent of digital candy floss. For example, the whole &amp;quot;surprise egg&amp;quot; trend, which basically is a video version of the lootbox &amp;#x2F; Deal Or No Deal, mechanic, is some of the most popular and recommended videos to children on youtube. 
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;results?sp=mAEB&amp;amp;search_query=surprise+egg&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;results?sp=mAEB&amp;amp;search_query=surpris...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;All three of the frist vids we were served by YouTube kids were surprise egg videos. Hard uninstall.&lt;p&gt;Curating content and setting limits on screen time is your job as a parent in this era. We cannot outsource this responsibility to companies and AIs because there is simply no way an algorithm find the stuff that is just right for your child.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rhino369</author><text>I use Plex and just only input shows I want my kids to watch. It&amp;#x27;s more work, but allows me to have a garden. It&amp;#x27;s probably not Kosher legally for me to be pirating shows, but I&amp;#x27;m only doing shows that I have access to via Netflix, Amazon, HBO etc. So morally, I feel I&amp;#x27;m justified.</text></comment>