YouTube videos for young children: an exploratory study

Abstract

The consumption of videos on the Internet by young children is increasing, and therefore, when they start school, a great part of their knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes, will be influenced by the contents they have consumed in social networks such as YouTube, which is considered a third educational agent in childhood, together with families and school. It is thus interesting to know what types of contents they are consuming, the characteristics of these publications, and their interactions with these channels. The present research will try to provide answers to these questions, with an exploratory and descriptive study with a sample of five YouTube channels in Spanish and Portuguese aimed at early childhood, starting with the category “Made for Kids” from Social Blade. The results of the study allowed us to discover the characteristics of the contents which have an effect on informal learning, favoring the child’s creativity, the development of abilities and competences of children. The conclusions stress the continued existence of certain risks associated to the inadequate use of YouTube, inviting the reflection on the need to broaden research studies on this subject matter, and the promotion of media and literacy training, through the incorporation of adequate values and behavioral rules. Emphasis is placed on implementing true media literacy in schooling during early childhood to develop the children’s abilities.