Is your kid obsessed with kid Youtube channels like mine is? She is watching certain channels like Elsia and Annia over and over and I am trying to figure out whether these are good or bad. I was looking for a guide to kid Youtube channels and couldn’t find anything online. What in the world are these things and why are all the kids just sitting mesmerized by what’s on the screen?
For our family, it all started with surprise eggs. She was watching her iPad in a trance like she used to watch her Baby Einstein DVDs. Now she has slowly moved into watching kids playing with dolls and reality type shows of families doing fun activities.
I have been listening to the videos and there are some that seem funny and nice for her to watch and I have also have listened to kids not being nice and back talking with their dolls.
Are these a good influence or not? Part of me thinks watching other kids play with dolls and playdoh will help her creativity (I am not the best at imaginative play) but then when I hear her whine for another toy I think these things are terrible. So which is it?
When I started asking my friends I found out that all of us are confused and none of us knew which were the good channels and which ones we should avoid.
So, I nominated myself to watch a bunch of videos from all the popular channels my friends listed for me. My husband was definitely looking at me funny when I was sitting with my computer last night watching kid Youtube videos. 🙂
YouTube Channels that in my opinion are just fine:
DCTC – Amy Jo & Brandon – This is a fun couple doing crazy contests. The guy is usually dressed as batman or spiderman. They either make food or do a candy eating contest. Nothing too crazy and she is super perky so I can see why kid would enjoy listening to her.
ChuChu TV – These are just animated nursery rhyme cartoons. My daughter started with these when she first found Youtube.
Family Fun Pack – Follow a cute family around while they go out day trips. They go to parks, pools and do crafts. It is really just a reality show with a large family. There are 5 kids and the parents are pretty fun.
Youtube channels that are just ok
Hailey’s Magical Playhouse – a little girl who says “Hi Friends” at the opening of each video. She is opening up a new toy in each video. There is a Dad off camera asking her questions and prompting her what to do next.
FunToyzCollector – boring, just a woman off camera all you see are her hands and hear her voice and she opens up lots of little toys.
Come Play With Me – two girls who seem like they are around 11 years old. They play with 2 dolls mainly. They are Elsa and Anna dolls but they call them Elsia and Annia and they take them to the pool or outside and play different scenarios out. I find their voices irritating as a parent but for some reason this is one of my daughters favorites.
Just plain bad
Hobby Kids TV – This is all about opening a new toy. It is such a commercial and you can tell they receive a lot of money from certain sponsors. They seem so fake when they say “Look a package from Amazon!” and you see a big Amazon sign and then they open up a toy. This is the type of video that made my daughter start asking when she was going to start getting toys delivered to our door.
The videos of kids opening toys were really bad for my daughters attitude. She started expecting new toys and seemed to be a little more sassy to me. I like that she is getting into the girls playing with the dolls and Family Fun Pack where they are out doing things as a family.
Since we are talking about monitoring what our children watch, I should mention that we have removed the regular Youtube app from their iPads and only allow the YouTube Kid app. So if you didn’t already know there is a different app for the kids, download it. It makes me feel a little better about what they could end up watching.
We learned to keep up with parental controls when we had a scary moment with one of my 8-year-old boy. He was watching Netflix and got into some nasty shows that were completely inappropriate. Read about it at Learn How to Set Parental Controls on Netflix – Learned After a Big Mommy Fail.
It is so hard to know what is good and what is bad when it comes to these new ways of consuming media. I hope this helps and let me know when there is a new one I should add to my list.
P.S. I feel I must say this because there are some people who think kids should have no media in their lives. My kids are super active, in a million sports and would rather play outside than inside but we do allow them to watch some media so this is to help those of us that do allow our children some access to it.
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My kids are a little older, so they watch the gamers on YouTube. Stampy is one of their favorites.
Great review! I think it is important, like you just showed, for parents to know what their child is viewing and if something comes up that you, as a parent, don’t like, to talk it through and give a thorough explanation of why!
Thanks. I definitely was creeped out watching some of them.
My nephew likes to look things up on Youtube. For a while, he was into watching rocket launches, but his interests keep changing so hopefully he won’t every become addicted. Some of these channels sound crazy, kids don’t need to watch toy unboxings.
My boys look up game tutorials on YouTube but haven’t gotten into channels yet. I’m really kinda hoping they don’t because it would be so hard to monitor.
I have heard many people talk about how the videos of kids unboxing toys is bad for children–I think it depends on the child to determine that, but I could see why they’d say that.
You tube has so many interesting videos for both children and adults. I can only imagine how addicting it could be. Good to know there are children appropriate channels!
Interesting. I don’t have kids yet, but I will have to keep an eye out for these when I do.
xoxo, Jenny
My niece is totally obsessed with videos but thankfully, they have a youtube for kids app that keeps it all in her subject area.
This is such a good resource, thank you! It’s amazing how quickly the kids can stumble on a YouTube channel that is anything but kid friendly!
I agree. It is scary.
Definitely a different generation with kids watching whatever they want on Youtube channels. I remember the days when I only had one channel to watch!
While I don’t have kids yet, I do babysit my cousins from time to time. It’s so interesting to watch what they are interested in these days. We love to watch funny cat videos and science discovery videos on YouTube!
My daughter loves YouTube – unfortunately. But all these channels sound like good options for her.
This is a great list, my kids love going on YouTune! I will have to check them out! Thanks for sharing!
My daughter loves YouTube! She usually loves watching imaginative play videos, such as the Play-Doh creations.
Any favorites? I was trying to find some of the play-doh ones but couldn’t find them. I would love to review those too.
Parents need to adapt to this new age of Youtube and tech! Glad that you did your research I hope this helps other parents.
I’m not familiar with kiddie YouTube channels , as my nephew is 11 years old. I do know that he is really into this channel made by this science guy who shows you all of these cool things to do with science. We watch the videos with him…they are really cool and quick. Thank goodness he does not try some of the more dangerous things.
Oh wow, I didn’t even know there was a kids youtube app!! Mine have only ever used youtube when we are learning about different animals and are looking them up to see what noises they make 🙂 These sound like good channels to watch out for when they discover youtube!
My kids definitely watch a few things on Youtube that are educational. I have not heard of some of these before, but will be checking them out to see if they are something that my kids would enjoy.
I wouldn’t get them started if they haven’t found them yet. 🙂 I would much rather have my kids watch something educational.
Awesome review!!! My 4 year old is YouTube kids obsessed. It’s crazy how little
Ones know how to run such things lol
My daughter is obsessed with Youtube Kids on iPad and with those opening toys shows! Ugh, I hate that show. Thank you for a great list of shows that are fine to plainly bad!
Kids are so cute at this age. My daughter Daelene is also a fan of Hailey and she really likes watching toy videos in youtube. So I decided to try and do the same thing, make a youtube channel for my daugther [Daelene’s Fantasy Playland](www.youtube.com/c/daelenesfantasyplayland) . Well it is fun because I now enjoy with her doing what she loves to do and that is play a lot with her toys.
That’s awesome. My daughter has pretended to make videos but I haven’t set up a channel. I’ll take a look at yours.
My daughter loves YouTube kids the unboxing videos especially the ones with slime and has really taken a liking to the come play with me videos. As I began watching them it would freak me out that they kept saying Elsya and Annya and I actually sat down and watched a couple videos with her I learned that the two larger dogs about the size of Barbies she does call Anna and Elsa but each of them have a daughter of themselves and that’s where the name Anya and Elsia come in. I felt a little bit better about the videos After figuring that little gem of information out. My little one watches about a half an hour of these videos at night from the YouTube kids app on her tablet while I’m preparing dinner. It gives the two of us a little bit more to talk about at the dinner table 😉
Yes, it took me a bit to figure out that they were calling them by a slightly different name. I wonder why they do that? 🙂
I think it’s only because it’s the smaller version of themselves and they didn’t want them to get confused between who is doing what and who was being called what You’ve got the mothers, aka Anna and Elsa, then the smaller versions of themselves, the tweens, who are Anya and Elsya.
Dolls not dogs!!! Darn speech-to-text got me again
My five year old watches come play with me. I do not recommend it for children. Not only are children “watching” advertisements on how to “play” with toys(which hinders their own imagination), But it is also social programming. I stopped my daughter from watching Come Play With Me because she began to pick up on girls mannerisms. Some may find the winning and snobbery in her voice “cute” but it isnt cute when your child develops the same whine. It is a child, yes, nut the sound of her voice is not merely irritating, but an offensive assault to your ears. Then, when yours starts to do it, it takes it to a whole NOTHA level.
The danger in “unboxing” and toy videos is starting materialistic practices young. I do not think it is a positive for children to sit and watch someone else get free toys to market to your child
AlphaBlocks is a good one, its educational. It depends on your child’s age. I do believe in educational youtubing. Dont get me wrong, as mom, i love my trash tv like The Real Housewives, but as women we know not to mimic what we see. But some adults are still impressionable, and even more so our children.
My daughter is a sophisticated shopper. She wants “sets”. She earns what she gets, which, isnt hard all she has to do is ask. lol. I play with her, and allow her to play with other girls. That is better, as she is using her own imagination and when i play it is guided play. Some topics are too mature.
Further, watching these videos is also earned, not automatically given which proves to be an excellent bargaining tool
Thank you for your list. I am glad you noticed the voice too. THe ones under the first heading are all Kittens approved.
To all you mommies:
Mom long and prosper!
I also find the Come Play with Me Girls to have irritating voices and my daughter has been imitating them. Nothing worse in my opinion than older kids speaking like babies.