Only whitelist content or creators you personally have vetted with apps like YouTube kids, jellyfin, etc until you can trust their own decision making. Then share an account so that you can see watch history (and hopefully your good media choices influenced their tastes as you would share an algorithm)
My son is still young, almost 8, so I’m speaking for near that age level. He doesn’t get unrestricted access to YouTube. If he’s watching YouTube, it’s with one of us present and helping him navigate it. He always wants to watch the video that’s the lowest quality shit just based on the thumbnail, because they have thumbnails that stick out. I’ve taught him about “low quality” content and we’ve watched a couple so he could understand what I meant. Now, when he wants to watch something like that, I say “no, that’s going to be low quality,” he seems to understand and we move on to find something else.
Eventually, I’m going to let him navigate YouTube alone sometimes, and then go back and look at his watch history to see how things are going. He doesn’t know watch history is a thing, nor will I ever tell him. If things go off the rails, we will guide them back to the rails slowly and nonjudgmentally
That said, we were at a restaurant the other day and a woman was there with her baby and a friend. She set that infant in a high chair with AI slop on her phone right in its face. The kid definitely didn’t disturb her conversation, because it looked like a zombie. Godspeed, child
He always wants to watch the video that’s the lowest quality shit just based on the thumbnail, because they have thumbnails that stick out.
There’s an add-on by the same guy who makes sponsorbock that replaces thumbnails (and video tittles) for more more accurate ones, maybe you want to try that.
(Disclaimer: The add-on itself is free software (as in freedom) but the developer added the restriction that after one hour trial you can either pay or wait 24h and then you can use it without restriction. It’s an interesting model.)
Remember that watch history has the largest impact on what recommended videos will appear in his feed.
Curating the watch history is insanely effective, I have done it for a decade and it has helped me keep my feed 92% politics free, and 98% toxic masculinity free, I never knew about Tate until I started seeing reddit posts about what a terrible person he is.
I would actually show him this when he is old enough.
My strategy about this was to remove any content I don’t specifically want recommendations from, but has shifted to a more permissive stance where I will focus on removing videos that specifically harms my recommendations.
Definitely the case! I’m not always on top of this myself, but I do go in and remove anything that may poison my recommendations. At this point, I just get plants, history, and a splash of comedy. Thank you for bringing this to the fore!
I’m yet to encounter this really, my kids (twins) are only 2. However, this is the answer as I understand it - limit access in terms of time and content, and relax those limitations as appropriate.
That said, I’m going to struggle. Everyone needs to find the right balance for their own home, but I suspect I will lean more towards allowing less access to more curated content than most parents. I just can’t abide the kind of brain rotting content that’s available. I can’t stand advertising of any kind. I know this will make me unpopular - or less “cool” than other parents, but I’m hoping that I can make up for it in other ways.
PBS Kids is a great option for littles! Free, no commercials, and supportive of social/emotional development (Reminder to set up a monthly donation to your local PBS station!). With the PBS Kids app, we’d often download a few episodes of something like Daniel Tiger or Wild Kratts for road trips
We rarely watch YouTube together, most of the time he’s watching a series of some kind through Netflix or Paramount. Trollhunters, Gravity Falls, Henry Danger, stuff like that. His only exposure to commercials is during football games, whereas I can still sing over 100 jingles from my childhood.
It’s still always better to limit/avoid screentime…
Yeah this is going to be part of my strategy.
Increased availability of better quality content, less reliance on algorithms serving up the next thing.
Look into DeArrow (by same creators of SponsorBlock), which offers crowdsourced “de-clickbaited” video titles and thumbnails.
While it’s nice to just avoid the clickbait while enjoying potentially genuinely good videos, I ended up uninstalling the extension. I want to explicitly avoid clickbait, and focus on encouraging and supporting creators that don’t use it. Also, if I end up unknowingly interacting with too many clickbait-y videos, I worry the algorithm will push me more of that.
This is good parenting. You can’t always be there to guide them or restrict them, nor should you want to be. You instead help them understand how to navigate the world themselves smartly. This is true for anything, not just what they see on the internet.
nor should you want to be
Found the part most parents struggle with!
Damn good answer. Proud of you
So, basically a future “people of walmart” 20 years before it happens. So like an orgin story for idiocy.
Unpopular opinion: I have a second phone logged into my kid’s YT account. I train the algorithm while he’s sleeping.
It takes a significant time, and YouTube doesn’t have good options for blocking content, but it helps keep out the worst of the brainrot.
It’s not really that hard with my son 13, I monitor what he’s doing discreetly using apps and just listening to what he’s doing. I make sure to explain to him what I find acceptable and I give him space and freedom to make mistakes but I’m also clear about the consequences. I don’t let him out of sight or ear shot.
My daughter 5 on the other hand is much tougher, she likes to watch slop and I have to limit it block shows or apps that have “free streaming” because the garbage is everywhere. She doesn’t understand or know the difference, she doesn’t see the overt government or corporate propaganda and low effort quality, she just sees bright colors and happy cartoons and signing. Here’s hoping my efforts aren’t for not.
Otherwise, just keep them off the black hole that is social media (Facebook/Instagram/tweeter and their clones) because there’s nothing good or redeemable there, limit YouTube and similar sites, take part in their lives while also giving the space to make decisions, don’t completely cut out AI but encourage creativeness using all of the tools available to them, encourage quality over quantity, instill healthy values, be flexible, and treat them like young humans. Treating them like young humans also means setting boundaries, being firm, standing your ground and being consistent. They’re humans not flowers. The values part is probably the hardest part to impart because what everyone themselves value doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing to everyone else and life is full of contradictions so they need to be able to decide who/what/when/where is the right choice and completely denying everything will blow up in your or their faces.
The values we teach them as parents is what will allow them to decide when is the right time to allow AI content as something acceptable and give them the knowledge for how to use it to their advantage. AI isn’t going away so don’t run away from it, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept the shit corporations are cramming down our throats or allow it to run our lives and raise our kids.
It’s a long war and a lot of people give up or declare victory too soon. Never give up, never surrender, because one day you will be old and AI will be running your life support machines and I hope someone’s lazy kid didn’t half ass train it because they grew up watching Cocomelon.
I monitor what he’s doing discreetly using apps and just listening to what he’s doing.
I feel happy about growing up with the beginning of the internet…
We had to use a family computer in a shared space. Not a tablet or phone that could be used unmonitored. Just because it wasn’t a technical measure doing the monitoring doesn’t mean we were unmonitored.
I don’t, I don’t gatekeep their entertainment. I do critically discuss the content with them though.
IMHO it’s more important to teach them to critically analyse what they consume.
Do you have any kids’ media literacy edu content you like?
My kid doesnt have internet access
As in, his pc in his room has no internet
When he plays online in the living room he isnt allowed to go to the browser unless i am there to tell him what to type or which site to go on
And he has no smartphone etc, just a dumb ass nokia
My kid is 11
First, help them discover real connections, with their friends, family, volunteer work, or even work with animals.
Introduce them to good content; art, music, plays, poetry, novels, film, video games, etc. that actually make them feel or discover something.
Help them to think critically about the media they consume and they won’t want entertainment to zone out to, but something that they can actually enrich themselfs with.
I don’t allow unsupervised watching of YouTube and all other platforms are forbidden.
Their computers are in a public space where I can see what they are doing and watching.
I also do not allow screens in their bedrooms the occasional exception being for homework not only if they can’t get it done in a common room.
As a parent, screen time was a mistake.
Don’t give them full access to the internet until college.
They need to do a PHD before getting internet access in my family
That’s a little unrealistic, is it not?
Maybe.
When I was a kid we didn’t have internet until highschool. We’d borrow mom’s laptop for homework and smuggle some games on the way. It made us very… resourceful. Internet was this magical inaccessible thing. I remember when our school gave us tablets with restricted internet, I guessed my math teacher’s password based on how he typed and used his account it to access the full internet.
You can’t unless you block social media which includes YouTube. At the end of the day, with my 8yo, I’m taking the approach of using parental controls to limit exposure to content he shouldn’t see and then doing my best to ensure he knows how to spot AI videos in their current state.
Raise them in the woods with no access to the outside world until the age of forty.
I feel sorry for parents. I almost replicated but thank god I did not. I obsered others and kept a record. My findings since I was a child is things are only gonna get worse. I might be a broke, I might be a joke but I sleep with the gravity of a thousand suns. Good luck out there. Thoughts and Prayers
You can’t, it is not possible, until parental controls include something about filtering AI, anyway it’s like the cat and mouse one day an AI filter came out the next day an anti-AI filter came out and so on.
All platforms are full of AI now, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram have always been since filter stuff.
Social engineers are hard working people.
I think the best approach could be to teach children to recognize AI stuff when they see it but it is hard with the actual educational system anyway the government will not spend a dime on it. About older people a big amount is just doomed.
Last point: you can almost control what your kid does with some exceptions, but you can’t control what other parents don’t and as we live in a society not in the woods your kid can and probably will be exposed to something.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted. Possible because people want to ignore their lack of control in raising children.
The only method is to teach them what ai slop is to teach them why to avoid it.
Anyone who is just trying to control it via bans are creating a situation where their children will hide their access to ai slop.
Other kids parents do not care and those kids will happily share their unrestricted access with any kids with the most restricted environment.
It’s surprising how easily some adults forget all the random ways they got around their own parents rules when they were the children.
They think if they prohibit all internet access until college it will work… really? We are at 2026 you can buy a $30 smartphone with internet access at Walmart.
In a socialist country, would AI be discouraged for video-making?
While I suspect a lot of lemmy would say yes just by virtue of having both socialist politics and an anti-AI stance, strictly speaking I don’t think AI inheritly has anything to do one way or the other with socialism (though the way and by whom it is owned probably would be different), so really that would depend more on how the culture of a given country treated that tech than it’s economic system.
As far as I know in North Korea the government can see what you do on your phone even without being a kid, so I believe not just that so even they will use AI to catch you doing it or another “evil” stuff faster.
Just to like the radio, television, internet, etc…AI slip is here to stay, it might die down, but the cats out of the bag. I would take the same steps you would regular parental controls for tv/phone/internet if you’re concerned.
Secondly and more importantly you should be teaching your kids critical thinking skills and not to believe everything they see or hear…just like that old quote
“Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear.”
The reason I say that is regardless of what you think of AI, it’s good enough now to where you can grab a few minutes sound bite of someone from Facebook or YouTube and be able to imitate there voice.
This generation is going to have to be much more viligant not just about spam emails, but audio and video calls imitaing a manger or a significant other…it’s going to be very interesting
