If you’ve been on the Internet for a while, you’ve probably at least heard of the disease that is modern children's’ content. The content itself is obviously and painfully annoying, with the loud sound effects, bright, saturated colors, and inclusion of popular cartoon characters, but did you know that it can actually harm children? 

Imagine being a parent, and lending your phone to your four year old to watch some YouTube Kids, thinking that nothing unsuitable could possibly bypass the moderation system. Then suddenly, you see them watching inappropriate content with actors playing as Spiderman, Elsa, and other characters popular amongst children. While this type of content was more prominent in 2017, it is still present and being produced to this day. The main format of these videos include the clickbait thumbnails, multiple and popular keywords in the title, loud sound effects, and bright colors. However, do you ever consider WHY these factors are a common trope in modern kids’ content?

Children tend to be especially gullible and often clueless (depending on the age) about what is suitable or unsuitable for them when browsing the media. This means that any kind of content they consume can heavily influence their behavior. Some parents take action, but…some don’t. In a quote from Nemours KidsHealth, “Media can also expose kids to high-risk sexual practices, and studies show that teens who watch lots of sexual content are more likely to start sexual activity at a young age.” This content being spread around and boosted can add to the influence, and the people behind this type of content purposefully include the elements I have listed previously to attract and lure children to click on their video and keep them glued to the screen, not to educate, but to gain and profit from the views. The videos also tend to be longer than eight minutes, which is the minimum duration for a video to include ads. These channels usually have lazily animated videos that are published multiple times a day.

I decided to watch the “Wheels on the Bus” video from their channel. I noticed the bright colors, movements, and short scenes, which explains why children are incredibly addicted to Cocomelon and other unsafe content.

There is also a big comparison of content in general to old kids’ shows in the 90s. Old shows had darker, but educational themes. They were more slow paced and easier for the young mind to comprehend, just like it should. However, modern kids’ content is much more stimulating and mind consuming that some children cannot keep up with the pacing and loud sound effects, which can result in a lack of attention span. A modern kids’ show called “Bluey” is a great example of slower paced content. Elements like the color scheme and movement are more subtle, and are easiery for children to take in.

Children’s content overall should be toned down and should stop romanticizing inappropriate behavior that can cause harm to them in the future. In addition, YouTube should really take more part in this situation, and while they enforced the COPPA rule to monetized content, I feel like they should demonetize the loud, over stimulating content if it is targeted towards children. Children should not be treated like they are stupid, and they should not be watching content that can potentially demolish their creative and curious minds, because they are our world’s future.