Found My Kid Watching Sketchy YouTube Videos

Aug 9·1 min read

My 11 year old was on YouTube and stumbled into some pretty inappropriate stuff. Not full on bad but definitely not for kids. I realized I haven't been monitoring what he's watching at all. I've been so hands off trying to not be controlling but apparently that was a mistake. Now I'm installing parental controls but I'm also worried about trust. How do you balance giving them independence with actually knowing what they're doing online?

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Comments(5)

JJoshuaExperiencedAug 10

This is exactly why I started having the conversation with my kids about what's okay to watch and what's not. We set up parental controls but also I just... talk to them about it. At 11 they're starting to understand 'this doesn't feel right' which is huge.

SSteveRegularAug 10

Yeah we had this talk with my oldest recently. The sketchy stuff finds them so fast. We ended up just sitting down and watching some of what she was into so we could actually discuss it instead of just saying no.

VVincentRegularAug 10

YouTube's algorithm can be wild. I'd recommend setting up restricted mode and maybe checking in on what he's watching. Not sneaky about it though, just part of the conversation.

LLance K.RegularAug 9

Yeah, the YouTube rabbit hole is real with two kids here. Setting up parental controls and having the conversation about what's appropriate saved us a lot of headaches. Better to catch it now than later.

VVincentRegularAug 9

Been dealing with this exact thing with my teens. The key is not freaking out on them but having an open talk about what they saw and why it's not cool. Keeps the door open for future stuff too.