Must-see videos are found on YouTube and it seems like every teenager knows how to use this video-sharing website. While it’s great that your teen can watch the latest updates about the Twilight Saga, it is also concerning that typing in the wrong letter to a word can land your child on a very inappropriate video.
When your child is careful, YouTube can be a fun place to visit and you might even enjoy it as well as you can finally see old clips of a newsreel that played when you were younger or an old television show that has yet to be released on Blu-Ray and DVD. It is important that parents sit down with their children and talk to them about appropriate and inappropriate things that they may find when using YouTube. You can help limit your child’s exposure to some inappropriate things by using the safety settings that YouTube has. The safety feature will use stars or symbols in place of foul and inappropriate language in the comments. It also can block out the comments entirely. You also need to watch the return results when you type in certain information like the world “girl” after you change your safety settings to see if there are still inappropriate videos that arise. You will probably have some that still pop up but compared to what it was before, you will be able to see a big improvement.
To help your children understand how to use YouTube in an appropriate manner, sit down with them and search for videos together. It’s a great way to spend time together and to laugh at funny videos and to also help educate your children as you can pull up great videos from actual events in our nation’s history. As a parent it is your job to talk to your child about videos that are off limits. To help with this you might try subscribing to the videos that they watch often and keeping the YouTube page on this channel only. This way they can watch all the music videos they want of Taylor Swift without accidently clicking on another artist that may have some vulgarity and inappropriate content in their videos.
YouTube is trying to help parents as they have put in an age-appropriate tool that will hopefully prevent kids from gaining access to videos that are not appropriate. The content filter YouTube created will send a message saying you need to be 18 or older to view the video and then you need to sign into your account before agreeing that you are 18.
One way to monitor your kids on YouTube is to create a family account that everyone will use when they are watching videos. This way you can see the history of the videos watched and videos that are recommended will come based on what you watch. You will have a little more control over what your kids are actually watching.
Always leave the computer in an open area in the home like your family room. This is the best way to have a watchful eye on your children and to ensure they are only viewing appropriate content. If you have kids that like to post their own YouTube videos, make sure they are creating appropriate content as well. It is also important to talk to them about what they say and do with the video as they could jeopardize their safety by giving out too much information. You do have the ability to make it so you only have 25 subscribers to your videos so they can be private instead of allowing anyone to have access to them.