The Dark Side of YouTube for Young Children

Nowadays, almost all people around the world actively use YouTube for digital literacy.

According to Bila, there are 1.5 billion YouTube users each month who enter in mid-2017.

YouTube users are coming from all ages including children. The number of children who use

YouTube increase dramatically from 2016 to 2017. According to ofcom.org.uk, the percentage

of children age 3 to 4 who use YouTube has increased 11 percentage point to 48% since 2016,

for age 5-7 increase by 17 percentage point to 71%, and for children age 8-11 increased by 8

percentage point to 81%. (8) From these data, it can be seen that many children actively use

YouTube. There are 400 hours video can be uploaded into YouTube for every minute. It allows

children watching the content out of control. It is very difficult to filter the content that can be

suitable for children. The inappropriate content of YouTube videos can adversely affect

children’s mental health which can disrupt their brain development and induce inappropriate

sexual behavior.

YouTube video can disrupt children’s brain development. On YouTube, children can find

various videos including those that endanger their health which can induce-fear. Fear can make

children unable to plan and make choices well. Volpitta, a founder of The Center for Resilient

Leadership, says that "Children who repeatedly experience stressful and/or fearful emotions may

under developing parts of their brain's prefrontal cortex and frontal lobe, the parts of the brain

responsible for executive functions, like making conscious choices and planning ahead.” (Bila,

par.3). A brain that is not well developed makes children unable to think wisely. The sample

video on YouTube that inducing-fear is PAW patrol cartoon video. This cartoon is very popular

for children ages 2 to 5. The first few minutes, the content of the video looks safe for children

but the longer it gets dark and scary. In the video, there is a scene which PAW Patrol’s Marshal
 Sara2

Character is tied up by a ghost at the dark night. The character cries and asks for help repeatedly.

This video can make the children fear of the dark.

YouTube causes children to have bad sexual behavior. Children may access or explicitly

watch videos that contain inappropriate content such as pornography on YouTube. The video can

make children curious and try to do sexual acts as they watch. According to Telis, “Children

around the world treat adults as rational and imitate them even if they don’t understand what the

adult is doing—especially if they don’t know what the adult is doing.”(p.9) From this

explanation, it can be said that children tend to imitate what people do on YouTube without

understanding the impact of it. That is the reason why children should not watch inappropriate

content like pornography. This is also explained by Perry with his statement that “Children

under twelve years old who have viewed pornography are statistically more likely to sexually

assault their peers.”(par.7). One of the examples of inappropriate videos is superhero animation

which entitles “Spiderman and Elsa kiss” in Toy Channel. In the video, there is a scene where

the Spiderman falls on Elsa in the toilet and do the inappropriate activity like kissing. This video

is one of the hottest kid’s videos in 2017 with 7.5 million views. Children will more easily

imitate the scenes performed by the characters they like.

The increasing number of YouTube users of children has negative impacts on their

growth. Watching YouTube too often makes the working system of a child's brain decrease, and

make them have poor sexual behavior. From examining those two impacts, people get the

information that YouTube does not only has a positive side on digital literacy but also has

negative impacts which can damage young generations, especially children. The thing that can

be done is to protect children from these effects. In this case, it takes the role of everyone,

especially parents. Parents must pay attention and guide their children in watching YouTube.
 Sara 3

Besides that, YouTube must filter content that is dangerous and not worth watching by children.

There must be no kid’s video contain the inappropriate content such as those that can induce

anxiety and contains things that are pornographic.

References:
Perry, David. "The Impact of Pornography on Children". American College of Pediatricians,
2016. https://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/the-impact-of-
pornography-on-children.
Bila, Josephine. “YouTube's Dark Side Could Be Affecting Your Child's Mental
Health.” CNBC, CNBC, 13 Feb. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/02/13/youtube-is-causing-stress-
and-sexualization-in-young-children.html.
Telis, Gisela. “Kids over Imitate Adults, Regardless of Culture”. Science partner journal. 2010.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/05/kids-overimitate-adults-regardless-culture
“Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report”. Ofcom: making communications work
for everyone. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/_data/assets/pdf_file/0020/108182/children-parents-
media-use-attitudes-2017.pdf. November 29. 2017.