YouTube – The Virtual Babysitter:

With most of us owning a smart TV and a high-speed fiber optic broadband connection, streaming of videos is not a difficult task. YouTube, the video sharing website created by three former PayPal employees had almost become a great companion in today’s homes. Though every family has got a High Definition (HD) or a Standard Definition (SD) DTH boxes, it is YouTube to which most of us are inclined to.

Image Credit: Pixabay

It is undeniable that with YouTube, we get to know a lot of information that happens around the world. Want to try some new type of Cooking, DIY’s – Do It Yourself, Movie Trailers what not, we hit YouTube for everything.

YouTube brings anything and everything visually to most of us. Starting from an earthquake in Japan to a chicken that gets out of an egg shell for the first time in some rural part of the world.

All these being said, we also need to agree to the fact that most of us parents 75 percent of the times rely on YouTube to engage kids. By turning YouTube app ON in our smart TV or in our cell phone we try to make our kids stay occupied. Sometimes for their advantage but most of the times for our benefits so that the kids do not trouble us when we are on to a task.

YouTube Has Everything:

It has got the video contents that are appropriate as well as inappropriate for a kid. Remember, the current generation grasps things much faster than us. In short time, they will get to know about everything irrespective of whether it is good or bad.When the above mentioned being the situation, are we not speeding up the process further?

Yes, especially by making them watch videos on YouTube or similar sites we are not helping them instead making a path for them to get to know about everything. I am very sure that every parent of the current generation would have faced a question from their kids for which they could not answer. It is not that we do not know the answer but that question, as well as its answer, is not appropriate for the kid. The kids show interest only to watch the cartoons and nothing else. But, how efficient the software or the applications are to identify the user and provide appropriate contents?

Image Credit: Pixabay

How do kids get exposed to all the contents even when the parental control is ‘ON’?

I do not think that we have an answer for it. We all know that there are Human Intelligence Tasks that a software cannot handle. This is the best example I can quote on why we cannot fully rely on an application or a software we use. It is true that with the mental pressures at work and personal things, we parents lose most of our energy by the time we reach home.

How many of us have got time to spend with our kids after reaching home?

Even if we find some time, I am sure that we will not be having the patience to handle things related to the kids. So, we parents are almost in a spot where we are left with no options other than to rely on applications like YouTube. The only thing to which we can focus now is on how to create a safe and kid friendly environment for the kids by choosing an application wisely.

YouTube Kids (aka) YT Kids:

An application created explicitly for the kids. I do not know about it for long. Hence, sharing information about it for similar other friends and readers of this post. YouTube kids application is available for download in Google Play and App Store. Please do spend some time by going through the Parental Guide link provided on the site for better understanding.

Awesome, we had now got a thought of installing YT kids on our cell phones to protect our kids from getting exposed to unwanted contents.

What about the movies which we show to them?

YouTube is not the only way through which a kid gets information. Here is where we parents need to understand certain things better. For example, the film certificates.

How many of us really know the meaning of each certificate that gets displayed at a start of a movie?

Few of us overlook things like this most of the times. Most of the time we just ensure that the rating is not ‘A’. But, it does not mean that the kids can watch the films that are with other ratings.

Please be informed that when it comes to India, it is Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) who provides the certificate for a film.

The Ratings:

In India, the film ratings have got 4 main categories as shown below.

• U (Unrestricted Public Exhibition)

– Films that fall into this category are Family Friendly.

• U/A (Parental Guidance for children below the age of 12 years)

– Films that fall into this category are not Family Friendly as they can contain themes that are not appropriate for the kids. For example, violence, fights, abusive languages, kissing scenes etc.

• A (Restricted to adults)

– This category is not for the Kids.

• S (Restricted to any special class of persons)

– Films under this category are not for Public. They are for Engineers, Doctors, Scientists, etc. with an explicit permission to watch those films.

The other ratings like V/U, V/UA, V/A are used for video releases. They carry the same meanings as U, U/A and A mentioned above.

These ratings are not applicable for the friends who are residing outside India. Each country has got their own way of rating a film.

Example:

Australia is considered by many as one of the most restrictive countries in film ratings of all Western democratic countries. For country specific details on the film certifications and ratings, please refer to the link mentioned below.

Hope you liked the post and found it to be informative. Now, join me on building a better future for our kids.

References:

httpss://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_censorship

httpss://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_picture_content_rating_system

httpss://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Board_of_Film_Certification