Speaker 1: The things you need to know about YouTube to keep
Speaker 1: your kids safe.
Speaker 2: What's going on. I'm Rich Damiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech and joining me today is
Speaker 1: Kevin Grush.
Speaker 2: He is the CEO of the Maiden Network.
Speaker 1: They make a bunch of videos for YouTube, and he's
Speaker 1: going to talk about some of the ways we can
Speaker 1: keep our kids safe when they're watching YouTube.
Speaker 2: Kevin, thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker 3: Of course, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: So tell me about Maiden. What kind of videos are
Speaker 2: you making?
Speaker 4: So we are making content in all different genres on
Speaker 4: YouTube right now, from food content to entertainment, pop culture videos.
Speaker 4: Some of our biggest channels are cinema sins binging with Babbish.
Speaker 4: We also represent a channel a guy named Marty Schwartz
Speaker 4: who's the biggest guitar teacher on YouTube.
Speaker 3: So all kind of across the board.
Speaker 1: And tell me about the state of YouTube. How big
Speaker 1: is this platform? I know, I look at it every
Speaker 1: single day. Yeah, I assume I'm looking at it less
Speaker 1: than a lot of people out there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's you know, YouTube continues to grow, not just
Speaker 4: in the amount of users on the platform, but really
Speaker 4: in how they're watching and how long they're watching. So
Speaker 4: we're seeing longer and longer watch times, people spending more
Speaker 4: time on the platform, watching it like it's TV, tuning
Speaker 4: in at regularly scheduled times, as opposed to just using
Speaker 4: it as maybe a resource when you're you know, looking
Speaker 4: up how to do something around the house or or
Speaker 4: something like that.
Speaker 1: And I imagine the growth is going to continue because
Speaker 1: more people are cutting the cord and they're looking for
Speaker 1: something to replaced, kind of like what they used to
Speaker 1: watch on TV. All right, so we're talking about kids. Now,
Speaker 1: I've got a couple kids. I don't really let them
Speaker 1: watch YouTube kind of all by themselves, like I kind of,
Speaker 1: I do curate things a little bit. They don't have
Speaker 1: the YouTube app on their iPads, but they do watch
Speaker 1: it on the TV screen, which I can see. So
Speaker 1: you've got a couple of tips that you want to share,
Speaker 1: and I thought this one was interesting.
Speaker 2: You say, curate what's you and your children watch?
Speaker 1: And I love the idea that you say. Well you
Speaker 1: say that to watch content from channels that you trust,
Speaker 1: but also create playlists in advance.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So so there are certainly channels on YouTube that are
Speaker 4: producing really great kids programming. As more and more kids
Speaker 4: are watching. As parents are allowing their kids to watch
Speaker 4: content on YouTube, there are certainly channels that are creating
Speaker 4: really high quality, safe content for kids, and so making
Speaker 4: sure that you know those channels, you've kind of vetted
Speaker 4: their content, and then that they're staying on those channels
Speaker 4: is important. But even within that once they've watched one video,
Speaker 4: there can be others that pop up through the recommendation engine,
Speaker 4: So it might look like a similar video from that channel,
Speaker 4: but it might be from somewhere completely different. And so
Speaker 4: creating a playlist where every video on that playlist you
Speaker 4: have seen, you know what it is, and then they're
Speaker 4: just watching from that playlist is probably one of the
Speaker 4: best ways that you can ensure that the content they're
Speaker 4: watching is safe.
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest, I don't think the time to
Speaker 1: create that playlist is when you're sitting down at a
Speaker 1: restaurant handing your phone over to the kids, because that's
Speaker 1: what parents are doing most of the time. That's not
Speaker 1: the time to create it. You create it in your
Speaker 1: own time, when you've got some time to do the research.
Speaker 3: Right sure, and it's I mean, it's super easy to do.
Speaker 4: Once once you've seen a video, even if it's a
Speaker 4: video that they've watched before and you know that it's
Speaker 4: safe just in that moment. If you've already created that playlist,
Speaker 4: it's it's one click of a button to make sure
Speaker 4: that it's added to it. And then in that moment,
Speaker 4: whether you're at the restaurant or or some other time
Speaker 4: when when you're wanting.
Speaker 3: To keep them occupied, you have that playlist ready to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we all know kids love to watch things
Speaker 1: a bazillion times, so it doesn't matter if they've seen it.
Speaker 1: You can add it to the playlist and they'll watch
Speaker 1: it again. So they've got the YouTube Kids app. And
Speaker 1: this took a lot of heat. I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: it was six months or a year ago when people
Speaker 1: realize that this was not a curated app, this was
Speaker 1: an algorithm driven app. So I think YouTube has done
Speaker 1: a little bit better job at making the YouTube Kids
Speaker 1: app friendlier for kids, but it's still not one hundred
Speaker 1: percent there, Like it's not one hundred percent safe visit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I mean you have to understand that the
Speaker 4: reality around the volume of content is uploaded to YouTube constantly,
Speaker 4: and so to be able to keep up with that
Speaker 4: that volume of content there has to be an algorithm
Speaker 4: that is allowing YouTube to place content in front of
Speaker 4: its viewers. That being said, it's not a perfect system,
Speaker 4: as you mentioned, And so even though the YouTube's kids
Speaker 4: app is kind of does some of the work for
Speaker 4: you by making sure that there is certainly not everything
Speaker 4: on YouTube there, there's still ways that things could slip
Speaker 4: through the cracks. And so with a little bit of
Speaker 4: effort of just making sure that you're actually seeing what
Speaker 4: they're watching in advance, is going to make sure that
Speaker 4: that you shure up any of those any of those
Speaker 4: negative possibilities.
Speaker 1: And you say that you can disable search inside the app,
Speaker 1: you can set time limits, which you can now do
Speaker 1: in the regular app. I noticed, so I guess adults
Speaker 1: need some time limits as well. Yeah, YouTube, this was
Speaker 1: really interesting. So there's this concept you call it YouTube poop,
Speaker 1: and I've seen this before and there you know, it's
Speaker 1: like a video starts out nice, like a Pepa pig video,
Speaker 1: but then it's sort of I call it terms evil
Speaker 1: almost where your kids are seeing things that they shouldn't
Speaker 1: be seeing. Why do people do this and how do
Speaker 1: you avoid that? I guess I mean you avoid it
Speaker 1: by I mean there's ways you can tell about that,
Speaker 1: But I mean just the awareness of this is important.
Speaker 4: I think that's the most important part. And to be
Speaker 4: familiar with these platforms, right, So understanding when we're talking
Speaker 4: about a channel and what's actually on a particular channel
Speaker 4: versus what's just out on YouTube is really important. So
Speaker 4: just familiarize yourself with the platform and the functionality so
Speaker 4: that you know.
Speaker 3: We might be giving these really helpful tips.
Speaker 4: But if if you know some of those basic things
Speaker 4: you haven't you know, understood or dove into on your own,
Speaker 4: they still could present problems.
Speaker 3: So it's easy stuff to do.
Speaker 4: It really is knowing that those dangers exist so that
Speaker 4: you can take the very simple steps to protect against them.
Speaker 1: And I think it really a lot of it comes
Speaker 1: down to discoverability. YouTube wants you to discover a bunch
Speaker 1: of different stuff. So you were showing me inside the app,
Speaker 1: when you're watching a video, you would think that the
Speaker 1: video is underneath there would be sort of from that
Speaker 1: same channel, which would help you out as a creator.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But what YouTube.
Speaker 1: Wants to do is get you exposed to as many
Speaker 1: videos as possible, just in the hopes that you might
Speaker 1: click another one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you're gonna see in the recommendations after you
Speaker 4: watch a video, whether it's below or on or on
Speaker 4: the side, depending on if you're which platform you're watching,
Speaker 4: you're going to see a number of videos that are
Speaker 4: from the same creator that you might have deemed safe.
Speaker 4: That being said, there are other videos that are trying
Speaker 4: to capitalize on the popularity in the search around a
Speaker 4: particular channel or type of video. And then, like you said,
Speaker 4: YouTube is trying to make sure that they're introducing you
Speaker 4: to all sorts of other.
Speaker 3: Creators that's similar, that's based on your interest. But and
Speaker 3: they do a really good job.
Speaker 4: But there are occasions when people are manipulating that to
Speaker 4: the point where they're sneaking you know, that evil stuff
Speaker 4: in that will allow you to that allow your kids
Speaker 4: to stumble upon it in quite innocently oftentimes.
Speaker 1: And also you say to look at the channel name
Speaker 1: kind of like identify those and the thumbnails, even though
Speaker 1: those can be a little bit misleading sometimes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's kind of some of the tools that
Speaker 4: they'll actually use to mislead you, is that if you're
Speaker 4: on a channel of Pepa Pig, for example, and then
Speaker 4: you see another thumbnail that has pep a Pig in it.
Speaker 4: You assume that it's from the same distributor of Pep
Speaker 4: a Pig content. It could be someone completely different who's
Speaker 4: just uploaded that, and so you want to make sure
Speaker 4: that you are actually make you know, you're understanding which
Speaker 4: channel is coming from, and then you actually watch the
Speaker 4: video as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is a good one. Beware of auto play because.
Speaker 1: Once a video finishes, another one's gonna start playing automatically. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you say to turn this off if you want to
Speaker 1: protect your kids.
Speaker 3: I think it's I mean, it's a simple.
Speaker 4: It's a simple, simple thing to do to be able
Speaker 4: to turn that feature off so that the next video
Speaker 4: that they watch has to be chosen either by you
Speaker 4: or that's playing from your playlist. So if you if
Speaker 4: you turn that off, you're not going to run into
Speaker 4: the risk of having one video play and then something
Speaker 4: unsavory popping up randomly after that.
Speaker 3: Fact.
Speaker 4: Again, YouTube is trying to make sure that they are close,
Speaker 4: you know, close as possible to what you're searching for,
Speaker 4: but there are ways to manipulate that to to you know,
Speaker 4: negative consequences, And as.
Speaker 2: A parent, I get it.
Speaker 1: You if you're handing over your phone to your kid
Speaker 1: you want them to watch for a while because you
Speaker 1: might be.
Speaker 2: Doing something that's generally a lot of times.
Speaker 1: But if you go back to those playlists that you
Speaker 1: recommended curating at the beginning, that's a really smart way
Speaker 1: to know that, Hey, my kid's gonna watch five videos,
Speaker 1: but they're all gonna be something I've already screened, so
Speaker 1: turn off the AutoPlay. I'll put how to do that
Speaker 1: in the show notes, but it's pretty simple. And finally,
Speaker 1: you talk about not just monitoring what your kids are watching,
Speaker 1: but also sort of manage what they're posting because eventually
Speaker 1: they're going to turn into a creator.
Speaker 2: I think we all are nowadays.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think that that is really a positive
Speaker 4: element of what YouTube is inspiring in kids, is as
Speaker 4: they're seeing other kids like them who are building big
Speaker 4: audiences and creating content, and it's it's inspiring them to
Speaker 4: go make stuff themselves. That being said, it's important to
Speaker 4: understand that this is a social platform, and so there
Speaker 4: are people anyone can find that content, see that content,
Speaker 4: and communicate to your children, you know, through comments and messaging.
Speaker 4: And so I would say, especially early on as your
Speaker 4: kids are starting to create content if they're just you know,
Speaker 4: they want to create videos, but you don't want that
Speaker 4: available to the entire world. Upload those videos as unlisted videos,
Speaker 4: meaning you can actually get the link. You can watch
Speaker 4: the video only if you have the link to it,
Speaker 4: so you can share it with friends and family wherever
Speaker 4: you choose, but that it's not available through YouTube as
Speaker 4: a search engine.
Speaker 1: Okay, so if you do unlisted, you can text that
Speaker 1: link or share it with your friends and family. They
Speaker 1: can easily access it without logging in. But the random
Speaker 1: person can't really find that video unless they have the link,
Speaker 1: which that's right, they would have to get from someone.
Speaker 1: That's right, all right, Kevin Grush, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining me from the made in Network on YouTube and
Speaker 1: tell people again where where they can find your video.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you can go to madotnetwork dot com to
Speaker 4: learn more about our company and some of the channels
Speaker 4: that we represent. But you know, I think that you know,
Speaker 4: finding our channels ourselves, whether it be binging with Babbage Cinema,
Speaker 4: sins Marty Music among another, you know, amongst others, those
Speaker 4: are probably some of the best places to start.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Excellent, Thanks so much for joining me and telling us
Speaker 1: about what we need to know to keep our kids
Speaker 1: safe on YouTube. If you want links to what I
Speaker 1: talked about here, you can go to my website. It
Speaker 1: is rich on tech dot TV. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you real soon