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FINALLY: How to clean up what your kids see on YouTube

Why is it so difficult to screen and filter what our kids watch on YouTube? I’ve been complaining about this forever, lamenting about the amount of garbage that’s out there, and the lack of content moderation. In fairness, it’s pretty much impossible to expect YouTube to be able to screen all of the millions of videos posted every day, but in that case YouTube should really make it easier for parents to block and screen stuff on our end.

My kids watch a lot of videos I fear will melt their brains – other people playing video games, for example, or compilations of dance clips from TikTok. Then there is the really inappropriate stuff with bad language, music videos that aren’t meant for kids, things they probably shouldn’t be learning about from strangers on the Internet.

So why don’t I just ban them from watching YouTube altogether, you ask? Because there is also an overwhelming amount of really great content available for them on YouTube. Stay with me, and I’ll share a list of our favorite wholesome, entertaining YouTube channels!

So I set out to find out how to leverage more control over the content my boys are consuming on YouTube, and I was shocked and dismayed at how complicated it is. It should be a simple matter of block this video, block this search, block this channel. But for whatever reason, YouTube doesn’t make it that easy.

The first step is to connect your child’s Google account to YouTube, if he or she has one. I was able to connect the Google account my son has through school. (If your child doesn’t have a Google account, you can easily create a free one here.)

Next, create a YouTube channel for them. I know, I know. I myself thought this was an unnecessary step, because I don’t really intend for my son to become a YouTube content creator, but alas, having a channel allows you greater governance over suggested content. Make sure you are signed in with their Google account when you create the channel, and note that if you are using a school Google account, you may not have control over editing the name of the account. My son’s YouTube channel is now his first and last name.

Now, if your child’s account has anything in the feed or watch history, you can begin to remove things you don’t like. Click on the three dots beside or under the video, and then select “Not interested” or “Don’t recommend channel.” My rule of thumb here is if it looks like the channel is full of stuff I just don’t want my kid to watch, I choose “Don’t recommend channel.” Next, go to Watch history and click the X to “Remove from watch history.”

You can also clear the search history, or remove certain keywords from the search history, although if your child can spell and type this won’t stop them from just entering the search terms again.

Finally, you can enable Restricted Mode. But in my humble opinion, Restricted Mode is lousy. It blocks content that is 100% safe and appropriate (for example the live stream of the jellyfish tank at Monterey Bay Aquarium?!), yet on Restricted Mode my 5- and 8-year-olds were watching a “kids say the darndest things” compilation video in which a little girl talks about how mommies poop babies out of their butts. *eyeroll* And know that if you decide to go the Restricted Mode route, that feature is enabled at the device level, so you will have to toggle it on on every single device your child watches YouTube with.

The filtering method I’ve described here is not perfect, and it’s not permanent. You’ll still have to go in from time to time, and weed out anything in the suggested feed or watch history that you don’t want your kid to see, and I have yet to find a way to block them from searching out certain channels or videos. If you know a way, please share.

 

Oh and as promised, here are our 10 fave “everybody’s happy” YouTube channels:

Educational and entertaining YouTube Channels your kids will love

Here’s a list of YouTube Channels you can feel good about letting your kids watch. Buy yourself some guilt-free time and sanity, parents!

Because guess what? It took me all of three hours this morning to discover we could not possibly follow that neatly-organized, color-coded Covid-19 daily schedule that has been making its way around the interwebs. It’s inhuman to think that a person can educate two kids (one of whom who is in preschool and can only identify three letters of the alphabet, and the other who is in first-grade going on 27 and thinks he knows everything (and he pretty much does…), as well as “work at home,” keep up on laundry and feeding and not let the house go to complete hell in a handbasket.

  • Mark Rober – a former NASA engineer does all kinds of fun experiments and builds, and in my humble opinion, he’s easy on the eyes 😉 (I submit for your consideration the photo above)
  • Cosmic Kids Yoga – yoga and mindfulness videos, in a fun way that makes kids not realize what they’re doing
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium – they have lots of cute and informative videos about animals and sea life, as well as live-streaming jellyfish and shark tanks, and penguin habitats
  • Nick Zammeti – a woodturner/carpenter with a huge personality, this guy makes a lot of cool things out of legos, colored pencils, orbeez and other things that will capture kids’ attentions
  • Josh Builds – he conducts fun backyard experiments and he does build some cool, doable stuff like a little insect robot out of a clothespin, a portable speaker, and a simple robot out of an aluminum can. But be warned, he also builds some stuff you might not want your kids to know how to build, like a flaming slingshot…

  • Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden – apparently, like everything else, the zoo is closed until furtner notice, and in the meantime they are offering a Facebook Live event every day at 3 p.m., featuring an animal and an activity kids can do at home.
  • Art for Kids Hub – this family shares art and drawing lessons and posts a new video almost every day. The lessons are simple and you only need a few supplies (like markers and paper) you probably already have at home.
  • Homeschool Pop – tons of videos on all kinds of educational topics, like holidays, animals, astronomy, grammar, history, poetry, weather, languages, and more. The videos range from short five-minute lessons, to longer an hour-plus.