Here’s an enlightening excerpt from a screen-skeptical parenting blog:
I know when my children were young, I thought managing their screens came down to 2 things: 1) limiting their time so they aren’t watching too much and 2) making sure they aren’t watching anything violent or ***ual. If the content was silly or mindless, so what? After all, I watched cartoons as a kid, and I turned out fine. And now, as an adult, I had my own “mindless content,” shows I would watch to unwind after the kids went to bed.
Here’s the thing that I didn’t realize then that I do now: the “mindless” content our children are being exposed to today—especially on YouTube—is not the same as the silly, escapist reality shows that we adults sometimes watch. The short and (I’ll just say it) stupid videos our children are watching on YouTube aren’t just wasting their time; they are actually harming their brains.
In fact, there’s a word for this particular kind of content: brain rot. And brain rot is having such a profound impact on our children at large that it actually was named the Oxford Dictionary’s 2024 Word of the Year.
I would suggest that lowering the brightness and speed of the video also lessens the risks, adjusted by the child’s age.
Needless to say, I’m not actually endorsing any adults or children seeing videos, etc., etc., etc.