Can YouTube Be Trusted?

Have you heard of Mr. Beast? How about Hazbin Hotel?

Even if you haven’t, there’s a good chance your child or grandchild has. Mr. Beast is a popular entertainer on YouTube. Most of his audience are under the age of 25. He has over 314 million subscribers, and his videos have racked-up more than 58 billion views. One of his co-hosts recently resigned after allegations surfaced that he had sent inappropriate messages to a minor.

Hazbin Hotel is an animated series on Amazon Prime Video about the winsome “princess of hell,” Charlie Morningstar, the daughter of satan and Lilith, and her efforts to rehabilitate the denizens of hell to save them from periodic “purges,” when angels from heaven sweep through and decimate their numbers. Beyond the complete inversion of good and evil, the series is replete with vulgarity, sexual innuendo, and perversions. But it was on YouTube that Hazbin Hotel first appeared and amassed a huge following of teen fans before Amazon picked it up.

Don’t misunderstand me. YouTube has a lot of worthwhile content. I use it often myself for information, entertainment, educational content and instructional videos. If you need to replace the garbage disposal on your kitchen sink, YouTube can show you how. If you need to know when and how to prune a fruit tree, begin strength training, or make a tasty carbonara sauce, YouTube can show you how. In a couple of decades, YouTube has made itself an indispensable tool for billions of users world-wide.

But for children and teens it is also an addictive portal to far worse content than anything TV executives could have ever have dreamed-up. And that’s especially true now that YouTube has added TikTok-style short-form videos. According to Axios, “almost all user growth among teens online is in short-form video.” Gen Z, those between the ages of 13-24, are far more likely to spend their screen time watching online videos (21%) than watching TV (17%).

Because many parents see value in YouTube and use it ourselves, maybe we aren’t as cautious as we should be when it comes to letting our kids or grandkids use YouTube.

So, if your child or grandchild spends a lot of time on YouTube (even if they don’t have their own phones, if they have internet access, you can bet they are on YouTube), here’s what you can do help protect them against harmful or inappropriate content:

YouTube Kids: YouTube Kids is designed specifically for children and includes parental controls. You can set content levels, turn search on or off, and block specific videos or channels. However, don’t let the fact that you are using YouTube Kids lure you into a false sense of security. There have been numerous reports of bad actors sneaking adult content into kids’ videos on YouTube. You still need to be vigilant, and especially with young children, watch with them. Don’t let your small children use YouTube unsupervised. Period.

Turn on “Restricted Mode”: This feature hides potentially mature content. You can enable it on the YouTube website or app by going to Settings > General > Restricted Mode.

Disable “Autoplay”: This will stop YouTube from automatically playing whatever is next in the video queue. There are a few ways to do this: You can switch off the Autoplay toggle at the top of the video player or above the “Up next” videos. Tap your profile picture, then tap Settings, then tap Autoplay, then tap the autoplay switch to the off position in the YouTube app. Click the Gear icon on the lower-right corner of the video, then switch off the Autoplay option.

Use Supervised Accounts for Older Children and Teens: For children over 13, you can set up a supervised experience on YouTube. This allows you to manage their content settings and screen time.

Set Time Limits and Check Viewing History: Your child’s time on YouTube should be purposeful, intentional, and limited. Before allowing access, find out what they intend to watch and how long they intend to stay on, and hold them to it.

Learn About the Pages They Follow and Do Your Research: A quick internet search will tell you about Mr. Beast or Hazbin Hotel. So before you let your child or teen “smash that subscribe button,” do your research on the channel or content provider.

Third-Party Apps:There are various apps and browser extensions that offer additional parental controls and monitoring features. There are even devices that connect to your router to provide more robust content control.

And last but not least, as parents and grandparents it is important to model responsible screen use for our kids and make sure we set aside time for family away from screens and devices.