Project Manager - Samuel Christ
Developer - Yichi Zhang
Developer - Jimmy Hua
Designer - Spencer Knapp
"Helping kids live a healthy life with technology"
In the United States, 60% of parents use YouTube as a tool for babysitting their children (ages 7-13) on at least a biweekly basis. This exposure is often unregulated, which poses risks of a child viewing inappropriate and/or violent content, as well as “binging” on content for extended periods of time. Research suggests that habitual consumption of YouTube content may lead to addiction and other psychological issues. YouTube Kids is an existing solution to some of these risks by removing comments and restricting videos shown. This approach to YouTube addiction is not effective because YouTube has a financial stake in designing its algorithm to promote high watch times, despite content moderation. Parents have the option to remove all ads by purchasing YouTube Premium, which still fails to directly address the issues of YouTube addiction and self-regulation. In light of these risks associated with YouTube, what balance of parent intervention and platform moderation best promotes child safety and self-regulation?