My son discovered YouTube gaming channels and I'm losing my mind

Jan 8·1 min read

So my 7yo watched maybe 30 mins of some guy playing Minecraft and now that's ALL he wants to do. He's asking me every five seconds if he can watch more videos. I set a timer for 1 hour on weekends but he's started sneaking into my office to use the tablet when I'm not looking.

The worst part? Some of these channels have weird sponsors and I don't even know what half the stuff is. How do people actually monitor this? Do I need to go through every single video he watches?

5 comments387 views

Comments(5)

MMarcusNew DadJan 9

Same boat here. My 8yo found some Roblox creator and literally watched 6 hours of it last Saturday. I set a hard limit of 1 hour on school days and it helped. The key is being consistent or they'll fight you on it every single time.

NNathanNew DadJan 8

The algorithm is designed to be addictive, not gonna sugarcoat it. YouTube knows exactly what they're doing. I feel your pain though, it's relentless.

DDerek P.RegularJan 9

Could be worse honestly. At least he's into something creative like Minecraft? Some of these other channels are basically just mindless content. Still annoying as hell though I get it.

TTom M.New DadJan 10

Have you tried getting him into building stuff in real life? Like actual Lego or blocks? My kid eventually got bored of just watching and wanted to create his own thing instead of watching someone else play.

TTommyNew DadJan 10

This is where parental controls on the device helped me way more than trying to reason with a 7yo. Just set it up so YouTube shuts down after 30 mins. No negotiation, no tantrum fuel.