A mum claimed she banned her son from watching YouTube Kids after another parent online said her child had “began acting weird” after using the streaming service
15:00, 08 Jan 2025Updated 15:01, 08 Jan 2025
According to some parents, anything that looks like a cartoon will make it onto YouTube Kids, even if they’re actually sinister(Image: Getty )
A mum has clamped down on her son’s screen time, ditching YouTube Kids and sharing the eye-opening reasons behind her decision.
Donatella, a TikTok user who shares snippets of her family life on the platform and goes by the name @proud..weirdos, explained why she axed the streaming service. She stumbled on another mum’s story online, who revealed her son had reportedly started “acting weird” after watching YouTube Kids.
“When she asked him why he was acting nervous, the child strangely responded by saying, ‘because I don’t want to kill you’,” Donatella relayed.
Determined to get to the bottom of the disturbing comment, the other mum found out it was linked to something her child had watched on YouTube Kids. She warned: “If it looks like a cartoon, sounds like a cartoon or appears ‘kiddy’, then it makes it on YouTube Kids.”
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She went on to claim that “f***ed up people” have worked out how to put “subliminal messaging” in what sounds like a kids’ programme. “I looked into it and it’s actually really scary how many videos there are out there.” Donatella confessed.
Sharing an example of such a video, she continued: “There will be like a cutesy little bear who will say, ‘this evening when your parents go to bed, go and get a knife and murder them’.”
“Instantly we were done, YouTube Kids was out,” Donatella said. “My son is six and trying to explain to him why he can’t have YouTube took a moment, but I decided to tell him the truth and he’s quite mature so it freaked him out.”
Donatella still allows her son to use their iPad for other activities including watching Disney+ and playing games, which she says she’s come to realise is more beneficial as playing “uses the brain”.
“The main thing I’ve noticed [since the ban] is his behaviour,” she closed. “He’s more mature now – he speaks more maturely, he understands and he listens better and his attention span is better. He has of course asked when he can use YouTube again, and I’ve explained he can when he’s old enough to understand the concept of messages he’s receiving.”
A spokesperson for YouTube said: “We have a responsibility to make our kids and family destinations safe for kids and young people. That is why we created dedicated experiences for kids and families with input from child development specialists, to provide age-appropriate experiences for kids while giving parents robust controls to customise the experience for their families.
“For example, in YouTube Kids parents can choose approved content only and their child can only watch videos, channels, and collections handpicked by the parent. They can also manage watch and search history from within their child’s account settings and use other controls like screen timers.”
The video prompted one TikTok user to allege: “Normal YouTube is honestly more kids-safe than whatever is on YouTube Kids.” Another spoke from a similar experience: “We stopped our children from watching YouTube kids also, their behaviour was awful and also the same fact of not knowing what they are actually watching.”
A third shared: “I banned YouTube for my daughter too. Her behaviour has improved massively she was so ratty and angry when she would come off it! Not had any of that since.” However, others blamed modern parenting techniques, including one person who slammed: “Parents offloading their parental responsibility to streaming services and then blaming the streaming services that their children saw something inappropriate is always hilarious.”
And a second pointed out: “YouTube kids has a feature called ‘approved content’, it allows me to only tick channels/content I want my daughter to watch. No random videos will come up as suggested etc, only everything I have added.”