YouTube Childcare Brain Damage

wektor

Well-known member
I know there's a few on here
curious what's your take on the childcare youtube videos with stock music/unsettling animations such as this one


to me these feel like watching a screensaver video but with deliberately distributed stimuli, ie. maximum base engagement instead of something that's fully "ambient" and dismissable

in personal experience, I have seen the situation a lot with parents in a restaurant, having their meal while their little offspring is salivating in front of a screen playing a loop of dancing fruits/household items, laid on top of vaguely unsettling royalty free music fading in and out
 

wg-

°
There's millions of these mad fucking things and the algorithms on kids videos are always only a few steps away from something really weird

The "Kids YouTube" app as a rule isn't that bad but kids videos on the main site are fucking bizarre

When my lad was very young there was a fascination with custom Grand Theft Auto multicolour car videos, which seemed mental at the time but seems a bit innocent now compared to the real mad stuff

 

GhostofKinski

Well-known member
Idk about YT, my gut says not healthy for kids. I had the kids YT app on my phone so my kid who doesn’t do long drives well could watch. I didn’t hear anything outrageous. Stupid yes, but pretty benign.

I do remember seeing an article about a year ago about ticktock. They surveyed the viewing of 1000 10 yo’s in both China & the U.S.
Then asked the kids what they wanted to be when they got older.
The overwhelming majority of Chinese kids gave occupations like engineering and astronaut.
The #1 answer from American kids was Influencer.
 

okzharp

Well-known member
my nephew is so chronically addicted to these AI anhedonic autoplay streams... he's 6, i try to speak to him and he's literally mush... his mum reckons he's ADHD or ADD or a bit ASD but tbh i reckon it's just mush, how could it not be?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
my nephew is so chronically addicted to these AI anhedonic autoplay streams... he's 6, i try to speak to him and he's literally mush... his mum reckons he's ADHD or ADD or a bit ASD but tbh i reckon it's just mush, how could it not be?
God, that's really sad. Could be that there's some inherent neurological thing going on that's made him so attracted to these things in the first place, but it sounds like they're certainly not helping, in any case. Like developing a heavy booze or weed habit as a result of depression, and then getting more depressed as a result of that.

The good thing is that small kids' brains have a lot of plasticity and resilience, although this decreases as they get older. Have you tried talking to your sister about trying gradually to ween him off them, even if it's just with a replacement by some more normal kids TV? There's tons of good stuff on Netflix that my son (5) likes. I can make some recommendations if you like.
 

okzharp

Well-known member
God, that's really sad. Could be that there's some inherent neurological thing going on that's made him so attracted to these things in the first place, but it sounds like they're certainly not helping, in any case. Like developing a heavy booze or weed habit as a result of depression, and then getting more depressed as a result of that.

The good thing is that small kids' brains have a of plasticity and resilience, although this decreases as they get older. Have you tried talking to your sister about trying gradually to ween him off them, even if it's just with a replacement by some more normal kids TV? There's tons of good stuff on Netflix that my son (5) likes. I can make some recommendations if you like.
he used to be obsessed with this channel called Blippi too which was really bad.

It's awkward, it's all she talks about but she also never really talks about it, yknow. pls do recommend, will send on.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
he used to be obsessed with this channel called Blippi too which was really bad.

Oh JFC, don't talk to me about fucking Blippi. 😡 My lad seems to be mostly over Blippi now, thank god.

The original Blippi was played by one Stevin John, whose past career is somewhat chequered:

Screenshot_20250605_124502_Chrome.jpg

Though I believe the title has now passed on to someone else, a bit like the Dread Pirate Roberts.
 
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