I wouldn’t in a million years watch YouTube videos with my daughter before vetting them first; even though I’m tempted at times when I have a spare 5 minutes to kill while waiting for dinner. Unfortunately, I don’t often have time to sit down and sift through all the inappropriate content. So tonight, I thought I would go through and make a list and share it with you in hopes that you would share a few of your favourites.
There are ways of making YouTube a bit safer for kids but they aren’t failsafe and I’m not willing to risk it. You can create a favourites list in YouTube, watch them on full screen to avoid inappropriate comments popping up, put it in safety mode and/or register an account for your child with an accurate age so that YouTube’s filters kick in.
I started making quite a list and then came across the following two sites which were exactly what I was looking for. Both of these sites pull the majority of their content from YouTube but they have been closely monitored. Every video that I had found previously could be found on these two sites. So, my list just got a lot shorter.
I like the looks of Kideos because you can search by age group (e.g 2-3, 3-4). They have everything from Sesame Street to Disney to Dancing Bears. Plus, they have an iphone app which I’m off to download now.
ZuiTube follows a similar idea but boasts the largest collection of Kids Videos anywhere and all of their content has been approved by parents and teachers.
Happy Safe Surfing!