Dear MEL Topic Readers,
US lawmakers call YouTube Kids a ‘vapid, consumerist’ wasteland
Another wave of the Covid outbreak is reaching many cities and countries, and schools are still or again closed. School children have been spending much longer time at home than they had never experienced since they were infants. But many parents and caregivers found that children nowadays are not as demanding as their childhood days long ago. Today’s kids are equipped with digital devices like a smartphone or tablet that draw their attention as long as their entire awake time. Unlike toys, puzzles, or TV shows, web content, and online games are all dynamic and on-demand, and many of them are free of charge. So, children can do exactly the same things as adults. They become reliant on online services like YouTube. Conveniently, there is a kids version called YouTube Kids, where only children-friendly video contents are supposed to be shown. Also, parents can set restrictions on unrefereed contents and limitations on playing time. However, there are only a few real-free contents on the web. Most of them are sponsored by marketers who want to influence the audience somehow or the other. And Google, the parent company of YouTube, generates significant revenues from ads.
The underlining problem may be the fact that both parents and kids are doing the same things at the same time in the same place. The only difference seems to be the contents.
Enjoy reading the article and learn about how children could be influenced while being online.
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