YouTube Kids is massively popular and also the actual worst content the world has to offer. The most successful content, racking up hundreds of millions of views, is extremely vapid and just consists of sounds and colours punctuated by disguised adverts for expensive toys. No narrative, no speech, nothing educational. Kids are so malleable and early development is so important, yet a sizeable chunk are watching people in knock-off Spider-Man costumes unwrap toys and chase around knock-off Elsas all day. I won’t even get into the unsettling uncanny valley side of things and the creepy procedurally generated animation on there.

I’m genuinely concerned about kids being brought up on what is essentially mental junk food through their most formative years. I’m not saying they all need to be listening to violin concertos all day, but I feel that when I was a kid straight up garbage like this didn’t even exist and every kids show had at least something you could learn from it, like Sesame Street, or was decently produced entertainment, like Pokemon. This has a quarter of a billion views and it’s just... nothing.

  • btbt [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I mean, weren’t most Saturday morning cartoons in the 70s and 80s just elaborate ads for toys?

    • KasDapital [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      A lot of them yes, but some no. Especially on PBS, while the shows do have toys I don't feel like that's the primary purpose of the shows, instead education is. Some shows still definitely are US propaganda, but most are like "hey maybe don't get angry and punch people," or "hey some people are in wheelchairs, and they can still do things too, be inclusive"

      • jszirm [she/her,xe/xem]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I grew up on pbs and I am very thankful to my parents for making sure that happened. Almost everyone I know that watched pbs nearly exclusively is generally a nicer, smarker, and more thoughtful person.

        • medium_adult_son [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          A friend and I both watched a lot of PBS growing up. My friend only had an antenna, and before the switch to digital there were no channels that only showed re-runs and catheter commercials, so it was either PBS kids programming or soap operas.

          I had basic cable and was alone for hours with my TV, so I'd channel surf and even as a small child I gravitated to watching PBS. But my other choices were Nickolodeon or Cartoon Network, not sexy Elsa or toy unboxing videos.

          My own kids will only have access to a Plex server of PBS shows that focus on books (reading rainbow), history(Wishbone), animals (Kratts), being a good person (Mr Rogers, Sesame Street), etc. YouTube Kids is brain poison that ends up promoting individualism and consumerism.