A mum has taken a firm stance against YouTube Kids and shared the compelling reasons for her decision, as well as the positive changes she’s observed in her son since. Donatella, who shares glimpses of her family life on TikTok, was prompted to act after hearing from another mother whose child started exhibiting odd behaviour allegedly attributed to the streaming service.
“When she asked him why he was acting nervous, the child strangely responded by saying, ‘because I don’t want to kill you’,” Donatella said of the other parent’s experience. The concerned mother investigated further and claimed that the issue stemmed from how YouTube “audits videos”.
According to Donatella: “If it looks like a cartoon, sounds like a cartoon or appears ‘kiddy’, then it makes it on YouTube Kids.” She added, “f***ed up people” have figured out ways to insert ‘subliminal messaging’ into seemingly innocent children’s content. I looked into it and it’s actually really scary how many videos there are out there.”
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WARNING – explicit language in TikTok video below, viewer discretion advised
She also described an alarming example of such content: “There will be like a cutesy little bear who will say, ‘this evening when your parents go to bed, go and get a knife and murder them’.”
“Instantly we were done, YouTube Kids was out,” Donatella revealed. “My son is six and trying to explain to him why he can’t have YouTube took a moment, but I decided to tell him the truth and he’s quite mature so it freaked him out.”
However, Donatella still permits her son to use their iPad for other purposes such as watching Disney+ and engaging in games, which she believes are more advantageous because playing “uses the brain”.
She’s since noted a positive change in her son’s conduct, meanwhile, which she revealed: “The main thing I’ve noticed [since the ban] is his behaviour. He’s more mature now – he speaks more maturely, he understands and he listens better and his attention span is better. He has of course asked when he can use YouTube again, and I’ve explained he can when he’s old enough to understand the concept of messages he’s receiving.”
A spokesperson for YouTube told us in response: “We have a responsibility to make our kids and family destinations safe for kids and young people. That is why we created dedicated experiences for kids and families with input from child development specialists, to provide age-appropriate experiences for kids while giving parents robust controls to customize the experience for their families.
“For example, in YouTube Kids parents can choose approved content only and their child can only watch videos, channels, and collections handpicked by the parent. They can also manage watch and search history from within their child’s account settings and use other controls like screen timers.”
Donatella’s stance resonated with social media users, with one TikTok user asserting: “Normal YouTube is honestly more kids-safe than whatever is on YouTube Kids.” This sentiment was echoed by another who shared a parallel experience: “We stopped our children from watching YouTube kids also, their behaviour was awful and also the same fact of not knowing what they are actually watching.”
Another parent chimed in: “I banned YouTube for my daughter too. Her behaviour has improved massively she was so ratty and angry when she would come off it! Not had any of that since.”
However, some pointed the finger at contemporary parenting methods, with one critic stating: “Parents offloading their parental responsibility to streaming services and then blaming the streaming services that their children saw something inappropriate is always hilarious.”
Whilst a second pointed out: “YouTube kids has a feature called ‘approved content’, it allows me to only tick channels/content I want my daughter to watch. No random videos will come up as suggested etc, only everything I have added.”