While YouTube Kids, the main site’s app producing filtered content created for children, have been widely enjoyed by many and are keeping parents secured about the safety of what their kids are watching online, some spokespersons from the company said that many children are starting to shift to YouTube’s main site and those who use the child-friendly app do not stay long.
In a report by Bloomberg, several people from YouTube said that kids who watch YouTube Kids tend to switch to the main YouTube site before they turn 13.
One person who works on the app shared how the shifting typically happens among kids aged seven.
Meanwhile, Jenny Radesky, University of Michigan assistant professor of pediatrics and an expert on childhood development, said that the shift from YouTube Kids to the main site is hard to reverse.
“Many parents have expressed that their child refuses to go back to YouTube Kids. It’s too baby-ish, too restrictive. Now that they’ve let the genie out of the bottle with YouTube main, it’s hard to reverse course,” she said.
While the shifting could not be prevented, Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki said that YouTube is continuously working on tools to ensure safety of kids.
“There is a lot of work for us to do. I acknowledge that, but I also know that we have tremendous tools at our fingertips that we can continue to invest in to do a better job,” she said at Code Conference 2019.
(Photo source: kyivpost.com/ schooliseasy.com)
