Dear YouTube,
My kids love you, and can learn a lot from you, so why don’t you make it easier for parents and rate your content where it’s easy to decipher?
Anyone with kids who use media probably understands my dilemma. Kids LOVE YouTube, and why not? It’s got everything from music, Minecraft, Shopkins, funny animals, and kids trying to be stars on it. Google almost anything and there will be a YouTube video available. Even some of the most educational pieces are found on YouTube.
But… there is one major problem with it… Nothing is rated. Here is a little example… My daughter loves sharks. She also uses YouTube. After shark week, she was full on obsessed with learning more about sharks so she did what any normal kid would do… she got on her iPad and opened up YouTube. Then, she entered sharks in the search field. Here’s what she found…
If you look closely, you will see that searching for something as simple as a shark video yields a lot more than what my little one bargained for. For starters, video #1: “Is this funny or cute?” has NOTHING to do with sharks. Video #4: “Naked Science – Shark Attacks” scared the crap out of both of us!
Yes, there is an app called YouTube Kids which is GREAT, but my 8-year-old finds most of it boring and it definitely LACKS in terms of content; such as, you won’t find any Nationally televised gymnastics competitions my girls love to watch on the app, and that is just one little thing.
As a parent, I’m not asking for much. A simple rating system when uploading videos to YouTube shouldn’t be too much to ask for right? Questions like, is this video right for children, or the age videos are ok for would be a step in the right direction. YouTube wants viewers and more parents would probably allow their kids on YouTube, hence more viewers, if they felt it was safe for their kids. Just a thought.
