I remember sitting in front of the tv as a child and hearing the cautionary tales of how watching television may affect vision if sitting too close, hearing if the volume was too loud, and your brain if watched too much.  At that time, like most children, I thought my parents were old, uninformed, and uncool.  They were the fun haters of youth and the barriers to all knowledge of the world outside that I might access through this giant box in our living room.  I realize I am about to date myself by writing about this, but I know that many of you share similar experiences, so I am willing to do so to share my perspective. Programming on MTV such as Bevis and his friend, Real World, Jimmy Knoxville’s stunts, and many others, left parents reeling at the thought of their child viewing such material.  The music videos alone were an education of sorts, but it just seemed normal.  Everyone was watching it, talking about it, and tuning in.  If you weren’t…you were not in the know!  Oh what angst!

 

Fast forward (also a term no one uses anymore) to now and here I sit as a parent of a Lower School child and an educator of all ages.  I have said out loud recently, to my embarrassment, something that was an echo of the past!  “TV Rots Your Brain!” Then I laughed out loud, because my mother’s voice had become my own.  Every ounce of research and logic went out the window as I exclaimed this while my little one was viewing a challenge on YouTube.  What I realized is that the voice I heard was fear.  Fear that my child might be viewing content that is dangerous, inappropriate, or not in line with the values that we work very hard to teach.  But I stopped in my tracks, because I know that TV does not rot your brain, there are parental control settings, and my child is rarely unsupervised while viewing.  But the reality is that one of the hardest questions I ponder is what is appropriate these days.  (also an indicator of age when you say-“these days”.)

 

YouTube is the source of my fear as a parent and educator.  I find that even with parental control settings or the chromebook settings it’s hard to know what kids can access.  I have also found that searching on a device versus on the television through the Roku brings different content.  For this reason, I began digging into this topic and wish to share.

 

The first suggestion I came upon is to check the settings.  As I mentioned there is a setting that can be enabled called “restricted mode”.  But what does this really do? 

According to Ben Stockton of Online Tech Tips, “this limits the video’s audience to signed-in YouTube users who are old enough to view the content.”  Ok, that sounds great.  But what does it mean ‘signed in YouTubers?’  And how does it know if they are old enough to view the content? 

 

To answer all of these questions I turned to Common Sense Media.  Common Sense Media is a source of “entertainment and technology recommendations for families and schools.” They provide reviews of movies, tv, books, games and apps for parents, educators and advocates.  The Parent’s Guide to YouTube is very helpful. If you do not have time to visit the guide, the quick notes are as follows:

·  Start by enabling restricted mode while logged in to your (or your child’s) YouTube account.  On each device where your child accesses YouTube, check the settings and the account to which they are logged in. Note that a duplicate account can be added with an alternate email address.

·  Watch with your child or check their watch history.  Even if the watch history is deleted, the recommended videos will be similar in content.  The algorithm will suggest additional videos similar to what has been viewed.

·  Subscribe to channels that you agree are appropriate with your student.  If the viewer is going directly to the channels they follow, there is less chance that they will search at random and find something other than what they intended.

·  Find out information about the creator of the content.  This information is located underneath the video and often has enough information for you to do additional research.

·  Ads can pop up while viewing and they are not always age appropriate.  To reduce ads, you can subscribe to YouTube Premium or educate your child on media literacy.

·  The recommended age in restricted mode is 13+.  Another option is YouTube Kids if your child is under the age of 13.

·  Some parents are surprised to find that their children are viewing TikTok videos but they do not have the TikTok app.  Content creators can upload from TikTok to YouTube and students are often using this option to access popular TikTok videos they may not otherwise have access to.

·  Children can upload content on YouTube as well and I have heard many students express their desire to be a ‘YouTuber’.  Visiting with your child about these safety guidelines before they become a ‘YouTuber’ can be helpful.

For additional information on this topic access the  Full Guide on How to Keep Kids Safe on YouTube