Help! My child wants a YouTube channel

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The more I get invited to speak to parents, the more I get this common question, “My child wants a YouTube channel, what should I do?” YouTube is the most common search engine behind Google and YouTubers make up today’s celebrities. In fact, I often share that my daughters will buy products on the recommendation of their favourite YouTubers (which brings up an entirely different discussion about the need to help kids to understand media literacy and in particular techniques YouTubers are using to sell products). 

When a child wishes for a YouTube channel, it is often because they are influenced by YouTube stardom. So as a parent, what should you do? Firstly, know that YouTube isn’t inherently bad for your child. Consider the YouTube Mission:

We believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories. Our values are based on four essential freedoms that define who we are: freedom of expression, freedom of opportunity, freedom of information and the freedom to belong. 

Here are a few things to consider if your child has asked for a YouTube channel.

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Parental Guidance

Firstly, it is important to note that YouTube is meant for kids 13 and older. This means, that when your 8 year old asks, they should not be on their own. Consider 11 year old Louie, who has had a YouTube channel since last November to share his art with the world. His mom, Diana has mentored him every step of the way. (check out my interview with them here). Starting a YouTube channel should be a joint venture and your child will need your mentorship and support to create the channel, as well as along the way. If you, or another caring adult or older sibling will not have the time to help, it may not be a good idea to embark on a YouTube channel journey another time. 

 

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Consider your WHY

Next, it is extremely important that you ask their child why they want a YouTube channel and what they would like to share. Louie, offers the following advice:

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When my daughter was quite young, she wanted to create movies starring her American Girl doll, my nephew wanted to create a channel to help people play Minecraft more effectively. Olivia Van Ledtje (on Vimeo rather than YouTube) shares her favourite books and reviews them. She too is mentored by her mom, Cynthia Merrill. What does your child wish to share? What are they passionate or knowledgeable about? Why do they want to share their voice with the world?

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Do some research

Before creating the channel, consider having a look at the YouTubers your child is watching and ask these questions:

“What is interesting about the message?”

” What do you like about this?”

“What would you do differently?”

It may be worthwhile to check out some educational videos together asking the above questions. Here is a list of some your child may find interesting: 

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What about hateful comments?

One of the biggest parenting fears is that a YouTube channel will open up the floodgates for hurtful or hateful comments. Mentoring your child on YouTube can also be about teaching your child how to respond to positive and negative comments; a skill that may serve them well as they get older. But you definitely don’t want to open your child up to mean and hurtful comments which may diminish their self confidence. Luckily, YouTube has many options for this. You can disallow comments altogether, but I suggest you moderate the comments instead.  You can add filters to ensure mean comments get held for review or hold all comments for review, allowing the positive or neutral ones and deleting the negative ones. See this resource for how to do this. 

Slow and Steady

Just because your child creates a channel, it doesn’t mean anyone will actually view the videos and/or subscribe to the channel. Your child needs to be prepared for this, but your messaging is important here. We don’t want our children to be obsessed with views and subscribers anyway; rather a passion for creativity. This video by Ethan Duncan is a significant one. He talks about the fact that he created a YouTube channel to learn how to communicate on a global scale and making the world better and making an impact, but that even adults are obsessed with subscribers. His message is an important one to emphasize. At first, it may be useful to share videos and the channel with family members and family friends to build momentum and support, but a slow and steady start is not only inevitable, but preferable.

Building a Business on YouTube

For older kids, or for your own reference, YouTube has created a certification program which will take you through a complete understanding of how to start your  YouTube channel with a business in mind. Click here to get started.

Balance

At first, your child will be obsessed with all things related to their YouTube channel. I don’t think this is a terrible thing (consider that my friend’s daughter spent hours and hours editing videos and then went to university to become a filmmaker and is now in that career). It is important that even before you embark on this journey, you decide what is an appropriate time to spend on the channel. The American Pediatric Society stresses that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to screen time, so when your child is creating, this is better than consuming (watching videos). Nonetheless, it is important that your child get fresh air, exercise, and a good night’s sleep.

Please share your experiences and insights about this topic in the comments section below.

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Tutorials & Resources

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