Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube

Advice | 2:11

5 Ways to Make YouTube Safer for Kids

Smosh, Jenna Marbles, Markiplier -- the names may not mean much to you, but chances are your kids are on a first-name basis. These funny YouTube hosts, with their off-the-cuff commentary, silly antics, and bewildering (to adults) subject matter, are some of the most influential personalities on young teens, garnering millions (and, in the case of disgraced Swedish gamer PewDiePie, billions) of views. But information about these personalities' shows -- the content, quality, and age-appropriateness, for example -- isn't easy for parents to find.

It would be great to be able to just download YouTube Kids and have your kids watch something hopefully more age-appropriate than regular YouTube. However, YouTube Kids has problems of its own. And the bottom line is: kids want to watch the original. But it's tough to manage. Anyone can create YouTube channels, they crop up seemingly out of nowhere, they don't follow program schedules, and they're cast out among thousands of other videos. There are also serious concerns that YouTube collects data from young users, in violation of the Childrens Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). 

So if your kids really love it, you'll have to strategize. Reading Common Sense Media reviews of YouTube channels is a good way to get a sense of their age-appropriateness and quality. And digging into the videos themselves -- watching with your kids or on your own -- is wise. You never know what's going to come up on a particular channel, since all the content is user-generated. 

Here are parents' most commonly asked questions about YouTube and kids. Also, read our detailed review of YouTube.

What's the best way to keep tabs on my kids' YouTube-watching?
How can I find out what my kid has been watching on YouTube?
How can I minimize my kids' exposure to iffy videos on YouTube?
How can I find out who's behind the videos my kid watches on YouTube?
How can I manage the related videos on YouTube?
Can I get rid of ads on YouTube?
What should I say to my kid about all the mean comments people leave on YouTube?
Are there any parental controls on YouTube?
How can I find good stuff on YouTube? 

What's the best way to keep tabs on my kids' YouTube-watching?

Simply ask your kids what they're watching and join them. In general, kids are tuning into certain channels or following specific YouTube personalities because they're entertained by them (not because they are actively searching for "bad" stuff). Many kids naturally want to share the videos they like. But be prepared to watch some weird stuff such as unboxing videos. If kids don't want to share, get the name of the channel they're watching and watch it later. Watch a few videos by the same creator to get a feel for the content.

How can I find out what my kid has been watching on YouTube?

If you're concerned about the content your kid is watching on YouTube -- and you've tried talking to her -- there are ways of tracking her viewing habits. If she has a YouTube account (which only requires a Gmail address), her YouTube page will display her recently watched videos, recommended videos based on her watch history, and suggestions for channels similar to the ones she's watched. Even if your kid deletes her "watch history," the recommendations all will be related to stuff she's watched.

How can I minimize my kids' exposure to iffy videos on YouTube?

Encourage your kids to subscribe to their favorite channels rather than hunting around on YouTube for the latest ones from a specific creator. Subscribers are notified when a new video is uploaded, plus all their channels are displayed in the Subscriptions section, making it easier, and faster, to go directly to the stuff they like. Consider choosing subscriptions together, and make an event out of watching the newest uploads with your kids. You can also try the Watch Later feature. YouTube gives you the ability to save videos to watch at a later time, which improves the odds that your kids will be exposed to stuff you've preapproved. You can create playlists, too, virtually designing a customized programming schedule of content for each of your kids or for different subjects they're interested in. 

How can I find out who's behind the videos my kid watches on YouTube?

Investigate the creator. The name of each video's creator appears beneath the video window and usually has a bit of information about the person behind the video and/or the channel itself. Google the creator's name to find out whether he or she has a Wikipedia page or another Web presence (most YouTubers use other social media including Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram to promote their brand). You might find out that your kid's favorite YouTube personality has an impressive reach. Check out our recommendations of positive role models on YouTube. 

How can I manage the related videos on YouTube?

The suggested videos listed on the right-hand side of the page are related in some way to the main video. Evaluate them to see if they seem age-appropriate, and that will provide an indication of the appropriateness of the main video. Here are some additional tips to make YouTube's related videos a little safer. 

Can I get rid of ads on YouTube?

There are tons of ads on YouTube. Even if your kids stick to kid videos, they'll see commercials for stuff that may not be appropriate. You can try to reduce or manage exposure to advertising, but the best option is to talk to your kids about viewing all marketing critically so they don't get sucked in. Alternatively, you can consider subscribing to YouTube Red, which doesn't show ads and which also has exclusive content.

What should I say to my kid about all the mean comments people leave on YouTube?

YouTube comments are notorious for being negative, but it's worth reading them to get a sense of the channels' demographic and the tone of the discussion. It can be possible to find hate speech or child predators lurking in the comments of videos featuring or targeted to kids and teens. Channel creators have the ability to moderate their comments to reduce the amount of negativity. A well-groomed comments section may indicate a more responsible creator. 

Are there any parental controls on YouTube?

YouTube is technically only for teens 13 and up, and what the site considers age-appropriate may not match your values. But YouTube offers a filter called Restricted Mode that limits the iffy stuff. Go to your account settings page and toggle on Restricted Mode at the bottom of the page. (It will remain on for logged-in users on the same browser.) The YouTube app also offers some settings that remind you to take a break and restrict your time, although these features are more a part of Google's efforts to promote "digital well-being" than parental controls. If you want more control over what your kids can watch on YouTube, consider downloading the YouTube Kids app, which offers some features including screen-time limits and restricted search, to keep young kids a little safer on the platform.

How can I find good stuff on YouTube? 

Most kids find out about new videos either from their friends or by clicking on the related videos (which may or may not be appropriate). But YouTube itself offers several ways to home in on quality content. Go to YouTube Spotlight for curated content in a variety of categories. Read about YouTube news on the company blog and check out our YouTube reviews and curated lists of decent YouTube shows for kids, such as Funny YouTube Channels, Positive Role Models on YouTube and Best YouTube Channels and Videos for Preschool Kids.

 https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/parents-ultimate-guide-to-youtube?utm_source=NEW+03082019+TWEEN-TEEN&utm_medium=email

Teach Kids When They’re Ready

©Shutterstock.com/Liderina

Our friend Marie’s daughter Emily just entered kindergarten. Emily went to preschool, where the curriculum revolved around things like petting rabbits and making art out of macaroni noodles. Emily isn’t all that interested in learning how to read, but she loves to dance and sing and can play with Barbies for hours.

Emily’s older sister, Frances, was reading well before she started kindergarten, and the difference between them worried Marie. Emily’s grandparents thought it was a problem, too, and hinted that perhaps Marie should be reading to Emily more often. When Marie talked to another mom about it, her friend shared the same concern about her own two daughters, wondering if it was somehow her fault for not reading to her younger daughter enough. Would these younger siblings be behind the moment they started kindergarten?

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This scenario drives us crazy because it’s grounded in fear, competition, and pressure, not in science or reality. Not only are parents feeling undue pressure, but their kids are, too. The measuring stick is out, comparing one kid to another, before they even start formal schooling. Academic benchmarks are being pushed earlier and earlier, based on the mistaken assumption that starting earlier means that kids will do better later.

We now teach reading to 5-year-olds even though evidence shows it’s more efficient to teach them to read at age 7, and that any advantage gained by kids who learn to read early washes out later in childhood.

What was once advanced work for a given grade level is now considered the norm, and children who struggle to keep up or just aren’t ready yet are considered deficient. Kids feel frustrated and embarrassed, and experience a low sense of control if they’re not ready to learn what they’re being taught.

The fact is that while school has changed, children haven’t. Today’s 5-year-olds are no more fundamentally advanced than their peers were in 1925, when we started measuring such things. A child today can draw a square at the same age as a child living in 1925 (4 and a half), or a triangle (5 and a half), or remember how many pennies he has counted (up to 20 by age 6).

These fundamentals indicate a child’s readiness for reading and arithmetic. Sure, some kids will jump the curve, but children need to be able to hold numbers in their head to really understand addition, and they must be able to discern the oblique line in a triangle to recognize and write letters like K and R.

The problem is that while children from the 1920s to the 1970s were free to play, laying the groundwork for key skills like self-regulation, modern kindergartners are required to read and write.

Brain development makes it easier to learn virtually everything (except foreign languages) as we get older. Work is always easier with good tools. You can build a table with a dull saw, but it will take longer and be less pleasant, and may ingrain bad building habits that are hard to break later on.

One of the most obvious problems we see from rushed academic training is poor pencil grip. Holding a pencil properly is actually pretty difficult. You need to have the fine motor skills to hold the pencil lightly between the tips of the first two fingers and the thumb, to stabilize it, and to move it both horizontally and vertically using only your fingertips. In a preschool class of 20 we know of in which the kids were encouraged to write much too early, 17 needed occupational therapy to correct the workarounds they’d internalized in order to hold a pencil.

Think of it: 85 percent of kids needed extra help, parents spent extra money, and parents and kids felt stressed because some adult thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be swell if we taught these 4-year-olds to write?” without any regard to developmental milestones.

We see this early push all the way through high school. Eighth graders take science classes that used to be taught to ninth graders, and kids in 10th grade read literature that used to be taught in college. In Montgomery County, outside Washington, DC, the school district attempted to teach algebra to most students in eighth grade rather than ninth grade, with the goal of eventually teaching it to most kids in seventh grade. It was a disaster, with three out of four students failing their final exam. Most eighth graders don’t have sufficiently developed abstract thinking skills to master algebra.

Historically, kids started college in their late teens because they were ready; while there have always been exceptions, on the whole 14-year-olds weren’t considered developmentally ready for rigorous college work. Ironically, in the attempt to advance our kids, our own thinking about these issues has regressed.

Ned fields requests from many parents who want their kids to start SAT prep in the ninth grade. Ned tells them that it’s a mistake to spend their kid’s time and their money for him to teach them things that they will naturally learn in school. It’s far better to wait for them to develop skills and acquire knowledge at school, and then to add to that with some test preparation in their junior year.

Starting test prep too early is not just totally unnecessary, it is actively counterproductive. It’s like sitting your 14-year-old down to explain the intricacies of a 401(k) plan. It’s not going to register.

The central, critical message here is a counterintuitive one that all parents would do well to internalize: Earlier isn’t necessarily better; and likewise, more isn’t better if it’s too much.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/teach-kids-when-theyre-ready

Reading too soon

There is a widely held belief in this country (and many others) that if we start teaching children to read, write, and spell in preschool and kindergarten that they will be ahead of the game (and their peers) by first grade. We think that pushing our kids to start early will make them better and give them the edge.

But it doesn’t work that way, in fact it can be detrimental.

Here’s why…

Children’s neurological pathways for reading, writing, and spelling are not formed yet at these young ages, therefore they are not equipped. In child development you can not miss, shortcut, or rush steps, it just doesn’t work.

Between 3 and 7 years old, predominantly the right side of the brain is developing. The right side of the brain is not where word reading takes place. The right side sees pictures and shapes and uses mental imagery to create the movie in their mind to understand the story. The left side of the brain is where we read words, it is responsible for decoding words into letters and phonetically sounding them out. This is true word reading. It is not until about age 7 that the corpus callosum fully integrates the left and right hemispheres of the brain to make reading complete for kids.

By making children read when they really only have access to the right side of their brain, they are forced to memorize what words look like by shape and guess, opposed to being able to sound them out. Not true reading. Also, when kids are focused on memorizing what the words look like by shape, they are not using their right brain to create the movie in their mind, leading to low comprehension.

What you might not know is that developing a strong sense of balance and proprioception (knowing where your body is), is a mandatory precursors to being a strong learner and student. Balance and proprioception are achieved through play, movement, and experiencing your surroundings, not through sitting still reading.

Don't get me wrong, I think being a good reader and spending lots of time reading is very important. Reading ability is probably the most important learned skill in our society. But the path to learning to read is counter-intuitive, the earlier we start them the harder it may be for them to achieve the skill of effortless reading needed to excel in school.

So how do we fix it?

Slow down. Let them use their body, play lots of games that require balance, help your child develop their balance and a sense of where their body starts and stops. Also, spend lots of time reading to them. Read to them so they can practice mental imagery in a relaxed environment. By reading to them, especially nursery rhymes, they train their ears to hear the slight differences in words, which is very important later when they are phonetically learning letters, sounding out words, and decoding words for spelling. (TV and videos can't give this to them.)

Until you have worked on this, your efforts for mastery in reading, writing, and spelling will be in frustration.

https://www.theorganizedmindhq.com/blog-1/reading-too-soon

References used for this article include:

-Johnson, Susan R. MD, FAAP, "Teaching our Children to Write, Read & Spell", http://youandyourchildshealth.org/articles/teaching-our-children.html

-Davies, Douglas, MSW, PhD, Child Development: A Practioner's Guide, Third Edition

-Milne, Duncan, Neuropsyschologist, Teaching The Brain To Read

Energy drinks and junk food are destroying teenage brain development

This is a very article and includes short videos that I cannot download and add to the article Here the link to the article with video's so that you can fully explore this topic.

New studies show that energy drinks and junk food adversely affect the developing brain in numerous ways.

Life depends upon such a precarious balancing of forces that comprehending the totality of influences can be exhausting, yet getting lost in the minutia is equally crippling. The last few decades have produced an unforgivable amount of energy devoted to optimizing cognitive and physical performance through micro-nutrients and compounds deserving far less attention.

The successful growth of animals is dependent upon the totality of their environment. Our penchant for marketing and selling isolated molecules speaks more to our habit of indulging fantasies than good science. There is no such thing as a “superfood.” There is food, some of it healthy, much of it not.

However, we know certain things to be true. The detrimental effects of sugar cannot be understated, even as we’re saturated with information about the metabolic nightmare this carbohydrate wages. Then again, decades of literature on the deadly effects of tobacco hasn’t resulted in a cessation of smoking. Sugar is an even harder addiction to break, especially given its ubiquity, the invented names companies use to shield our prying eyes. And as I wrote about earlier this year, sugar is even the main culprit in our toxic love of cigarettes.

The 22.4 teaspoons of sugar the average American eats every single day is crippling at any age. New research published by the Teratology Society, in a journal focused on teenage brain development, Birth Defects Research: The Teenage Brain, finds sugar to be especially damaging for teenagers. The growing popularity of energy drinks and junk food in teens is adversely affecting latter stages of their brain development.

RMIT University’s Amy Reichelt writes that junk food negatively affects decision making and provokes reward-seeking behavior, which sets up the teen for a lifetime of poor dietary and behavioral habits. Two major neurotransmitter systems—dopamine-mediated reward signaling and inhibitory transmission—are both adversely affected by sugar-heavy junk foods during a critical phase of brain development.

Adolescence is a critical nexus when the last fundamental stages of brain development occur alongside a heightened period of behavioral alterations, thus creating a “perfect storm” where lifestyle choices can change the trajectory of brain development and exert long-term impacts on brain health.



Given how accessible cheap, energy-rich, nutrient-poor junk foods are to teenagers—teens consume the highest amounts of these foods of any age group—a lifetime of poor behavioral choices follow when no interventions are made. The stunning rise of obesity in not only adults but children and teens as well is cause for alarm. The prevalence of obesity in American children is now at 31 percent.


The changes in reward circuitry prompted by junk food result in poor cognitive and emotional performance. The teen (and future adult) suffers from increased impulsive behavior and impairments in memory consolidation and social interactions. Males in particular experience impaired behavior inhibition after consuming large volumes of sugar sweetened beverages. The hippocampus suffers in high-sugar diets, which is also known to induce cognitive deficits over time.


The overconsumption of junk foods during adolescence causes specific neurobiological changes to reward systems that impact the development of frontostriatal and frontotemporal neurocircuitry. This reduces the capacity for behavioral inhibition during adolescence, and leads to the pronounced behavioral alterations observed in cognitive tasks reliant on these systems.


The study on energy drinks, led by Christine Curran and Cecile Marczinsk at Northern Kentucky University, focuses on the deleterious effects of another form of junk food, heavy in caffeine and taurine. Alcohol is also implicated in this research, as energy drinks are especially popular mixers. This projected $60 billion global industry troubles the authors, given the insidious mixture of caffeine and taurine:


The data suggest that age is an important factor in both caffeine and taurine toxicity. Although the aged or diseased brain might benefit from taurine or caffeine supplementation, it appears that adolescents are not likely to benefit from supplementation and may, in fact, suffer ill effects from chronic ingestion of high doses.

Since energy drinks are sold as food supplements, companies are not required to list caffeine levels. While caffeine toxicity is not often discussed—45 percent of all reported cases occur in children or teens—Curran and Marczinsk note caffeine levels per energy drink range from a relatively safe 50 mg to a whopping 505 mg. One energy drink has the potential to push 70 percent of children and 40 percent of teens above adverse effect levels, considered to be 3 mg/kg/day.

Caffeine can increase blood pressure and heart rate; when combined with the amino acid taurine the likelihood that this happens increases. Using research on mice, the authors share the cognitive problems this combination presents. While they acknowledge that caffeine does indeed have positive cognitive effects in adults, they conclude:

The developing brain is uniquely sensitive to caffeine’s effects through early adulthood, and fatigue in a developing child is an indicator for the need to rest and not an indication for need for caffeine administration.

The main problems are in learning and memory retention in developing brains, similar to issues experienced due to an over consumption of junk foods. Addictive substances usually result in chronic impairment. We don’t recognize the problems when we’re in the middle of them. For teens hooked on sugar, caffeine, and taurine, adulthood is simply the seamless continuation of bad habits that have helped shape their very conception of who they are and how they function as animals.


Given that obesity is changing the DNA of future generations, until we give up our toxic love of these addictive substances it’s doubtful we’ll return to the highly functional, diverse bodies that helped us evolve over millions of years. Until we change our environment there’s little chance we’ll improve upon the cognitive and behavioral problems plaguing our society. Evolution is defined by a struggle for survival. Right now sugar is thriving, at our expense.

Fortnite teen hackers 'earning thousands of pounds a week'

It is happening here in Vietnam and potentially at ISHCMC. Please be aware

Image captionEpic Games regularly releases new "skins", allowing players to change the look of their characters

Children as young as 14 are making thousands of pounds a week as part of a global hacking network built around the popular video game Fortnite.

About 20 hackers told the BBC they were stealing the private gaming accounts of players and reselling them online.

Fortnite is free to play but is estimated to have made more than £1bn through the sale of "skins", which change the look of a character, and other add-ons.

This fuels a growing black market.

Hackers can sell player accounts for as little as 25p or hundreds of pounds, depending on what they contain.

Image captionEpic charges differing amounts of V-Bucks - an in-game currency - for different skins

The items are collected as in-game purchases but are purely cosmetic and do not give gamers any extra abilities.

Fortnite-maker Epic declined to comment on the investigation but said it was working to improve account security.

The game has more than 200 million players.

'Felt horrible'

One British hacker said he got involved at the age of 14 earlier this summer, when he himself became the victim of a hack.

Speaking from his bedroom via a video chat, wearing a baseball cap and bandana to hide his identity, the teenager said he had spent about £50 of his pocket money to build up a collection of skins, when he had woken up to a message that changed everything.

"The email said that my password had been changed and two-factor authentication had been added by someone else. It felt horrible," he recalled.

Two-factor authentication meant his account could only be accessed by entering a code sent to an email address or app registered by the perpetrator.

Like many victims, he turned to Twitter to vent his frustration.

That was where he saw new accounts containing even better items on sale.

"I was approached by someone who said I could buy an account for 25p and I could clearly see the account was worth a lot more," he recalled.

"I bought it."

He knew he was playing on a stolen account but with so many others doing it online and making lots of money, he was soon drawn into the world of "Fortnite cracking".

"I was approached by a cracking team and they told me what it was and all about 'combos', 'proxies' and I guess they showed me how to crack," he said.

'Lucky dip'

He said they showed him where to find the vast lists of usernames and passwords published online from other data breaches over the years.

Image captionHackers can lock out players by tying the account to their own email address

They showed him where to buy "off-the-shelf" hacker tools needed to input those credentials into the login page of Fortnite. Once inside an account, they showed him how to take it over and then sell it to the hungry online community.

He insisted that he only carried out one cracking session. But in that single day he managed to access more than 1,000 Fortnite accounts.

"It's lucky dip basically, you either get a good account or you don't. People like the rarity of the 'skins' and it's about the look of them and showing off to friends."

The hacker said he was now a middleman for other crackers, selling on accounts he knew to be stolen. In his first few weeks, he made around £1,500 and bought himself some games and a new bicycle.

He said he knew what he was doing was illegal, but his parents were aware of his activities and had not stopped him.

Image copyrightEPIC GAMES

Image captionSome skins are much rarer than others

Offences like this fall under the Computer Misuse Act and carry a possible prison sentence of two years.

Some hackers show no signs of remorse or concern. One of the most prolific is a 17-year-old from Slovenia, who sells through his own website.

"You can't get caught, nobody checks it," he told the BBC from within the game.

Amidst the gunfire and wall-building, he said he had made £16,000 in the seven months that he had been cracking.

He said his mother was an accountant who was helping him save for a first car. He sent screenshots of his Paypal accounts and Bitcoin wallets to confirm his business was real.

Another hacker showed proof of earnings ranging from £50 a day to almost £300.

The 15-year-old from France said his best week netted him £2,300.

"Yes I have done other stuff but nothing too big," he added, referring to identity fraud among other cyber-crimes.

• Fortnite players warned over hack attacks
• Rehab camp aims to put young cyber-crooks on right track
• The hidden history of cyber-crime forums

The National Crime Agency says there is a long-standing link between video games and hacking, and that publishers need to do more to prevent players being tempted into crime.

"What we want to see these companies do is not look at this from a purely technical standpoint," said the agency's lead on gaming, Ethan Thomas.

"What we'd like... is the gaming industry engaging more with law enforcement and looking at early intervention messaging on their platforms to divert [youngsters] on to a more ethical and legal path."

Debbie Tunstall runs rehabilitation days for low-level hackers who have been caught.

She is concerned about networks like Fortnite's cracking community.

"We know that these sorts of activities are linked to organised crime and we know that they are being egged on by more dangerous people behind the scenes," she explained.

"There is definitely cyber-crime grooming taking place and if we don't act they could easily get taken down that route."

Image copyrightEPIC GAMES

The issue of account hacking on Fortnite was first brought to the attention of Epic in March, when it said it was looking into the problem.

Hackers say it makes it extremely hard for them to access an account if players add two-factor authentication to their own accounts.

Epic encourages the security measure by rewarding those who adopt it with in-game accessories but has opted not to make the step mandatory.