Parents Should Avoid YouTube Kids When It Comes To Screen Time, According To This Childhood Therapist

Screens are not great — duh. We’re well aware at this point that the time we spend scrolling and accepting blue light into our eyeballs is not the best for us, or our kids. But, an entirely screen-free life feels kind of impossible to imagine in this day and age (although, hats off to you if you’ve managed it).

Chances are, your kid probably has some amount of screen time in their daily routine. And, chances are, you’ve probably tried to limit it to the least detrimental, most kid-friendly options. It. turns out, however, that one go-to for parents might actually be a no-go: YouTube Kids.

“YouTube Kids is its own category of screen time,” said Abby Thomason, an early childhood therapist. Thomason shared why she recommends against the platform on her Instagram account, @earlyemotions.

Thomason noted that she has two kids of her own, and they are not a screen-free household. However, she noticed certain issues in her own family, and in her work as a therapist, that have led her to reconsider using YouTube Kids.

First off, Thomason explained that the platform is formulated for that quick endorphin release that makes TikTok so addictive. While the videos on YouTube Kid aren’t quite as short as TikToks or Reels, kids still have the option to quickly click to the next thing, and fall into a scroll hole.

“They have easy access to fly through and pick the next thing. So their mind is constantly going, what's next, what's next, what's next,” she said.

YouTube Kids also is relatively unregulated, so you don’t really know what your kid could end up watching.

“They say that it's for kids, but anybody can put anything up there,” Thomason said. “What I've experienced that I've seen on there, it's not something that maybe my kid would know is a creepy, weird thing. It just feels kind of icky to me as a mom, like, why is this a video?”

Just this week, YouTube announced its Youth Digital Wellbeing Initiative, with the intention to promote educational content for children, while limiting their exposure to potentially harmful, “low quality” content — however, the platform has not explained how it plans to do that.

Thomason also shared that, in her experience as a therapist, she has found that kids have a harder time transitioning away from YouTube Kids and that the platform leads to more meltdowns than movies or TV shows.

“They think about it all the time, and they want it all the time, and they want to do YouTube Kids overplay or anything else that a kiddo should be doing,” she said.

Parents in the comments corroborated Thomason’s concerns, with many sharing that they no longer use the platform.

“We deleted YT kids for our 5yo about 5 months ago because they were starting to show scary videos and I was like okay absolutely not,” one mom shared. “She only watches Disney and PBS Kids now lol.”

“My parents were letting them watch it and I noticed immediate behavior change. I put the axe down on that,” said another.

Not everyone took issue with it, however.

“My kids know they get one video on YouTube per day. I set the rule and follow through with it. It’s not a problem in our house,” another mom said.

Maybe YouTube Kids works for your family — and that’s great. But, if you recognize some of these issues in your kid, it might be time to reexamine your family’s screen time options.