6 year old discovered YouTube and won't stop watching

May 11 min read

My son used to be fine with limited screen time but then somehow found YouTube kids and now he just wants to watch people playing video games for hours. I set up the parental controls but he's figured out how to get around them somehow? He's not even playing the games himself just watching other people. When I tell him to stop he throws a fit. Is this normal at 6 or should I be more worried? My wife thinks I'm overreacting but I feel like we've lost control.

7 comments191 views

Comments(7)

DDanny K.RegularMay 2

YouTube Kids is a trap man. The algorithm pulls them in hard. We finally just took the screen away for a while and reset expectations. Took about a week before he stopped asking but it worked.

AAlexRegularMay 2

I had this problem with my 7 year old. What worked for us was deleting the app from his profile and only allowing YouTube through supervised access once or twice a week. It sucks to be the bad guy but it works.

MMarcusNew DadMay 2

YouTube Kids sounds educational but the algorithm is designed to keep them watching forever. At 6 it's totally reasonable to just pull it back and offer other options.

EEvan M.New DadMay 2

The YouTube rabbit hole with young kids is real. One video leads to another and suddenly they've been watching for two hours. Setting strict time limits helped us but you basically have to enforce it or they'll push back.

MMatt J.RegularMay 1

Yeah this is tough. I'd say try redirecting to something else he actually enjoys doing instead of just taking it away. My son loves mini golf so we do that on Sundays and he forgets about screens pretty quick when he's doing something fun in person.

CCarl W.RegularMay 1

We went through this with our oldest. The gaming content is like crack for kids that age. We ended up having to physically remove access during certain times and replaced it with other stuff like our backyard camping setup. It got better after a few weeks of pushing back.

BBrandonNew DadMay 1

Man I feel this one hard. I've got two kids on tablets and setting limits has been a nightmare for me. What helps is being super consistent with the rules even when they push back. It sucks at first but your kid will adjust.