7 yo has been watching you-tube

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Time to implement parental controls-what is the best way to do this? Thanks- Paul

my son LOVES to watch you tube...mario games and sonic games, etc so he can learn how to beat the levels. BUT he MUST be monitored. Some of the videos are fine, some are people talking and cursing...and some videos are not waht he thinks they are. SOOO when he is on you tube I am right there. Those are the only controls in my home allowed...lol. He also knows when he hears talking to turn the volume off, and if he sees something strange he will shut it ASAP casue if I have to tell him to I will take his privelages away.

Parental control options are built into Windows Operating Systems. In Windows8, it's in the Control Panel under User Accounts and Family Safety. You can block specific websites, lock out of web browsing altogether or block certain types of content (though I am not exactly sure what that means, how it would block types). Anyhow, find it in your operating system.

I've never used parental controls and would guess that it's not a wholesale solution and that supervision and working toward understanding what's expected of him and obedience to that, will remain your first line of order.

you can manually block websites through your router too

I have YouTube set on "safe" mode. It is not fool proof, but it is good enough for us because my seven year old's search terms are largely safe and special interest oriented. Also, the computer is in a public space, and I am there to supervise.

He learns a lot on YouTube and has even developed some new special interests that way. We have occasionally come across videos with inappropriate language that I had to ban that caused some tears. I am not really a language censoring kind of person but my son has echolalia and is not home schooled, and I needed to protect him from using the language at school (even though he does not understand it; he "scripts" things he likes, so I felt it was what I needed to do.)

Has he run across anything inappropriate yet based on his search terms? You may not have to worry as much as you think.

My DD LOVES you tube at the moment, as said in an earlier post there is a safety mode which you will find on the bottom of the web page. However l think interesting stuff does get through here and there. The best thing you can do is monitor and restrict time as my one would spend hours and hours if she could.

my kids are whizzes at getting around parental controls. The only thing we've found so far that works for us is Anti-Porn. Obviously, there's more to it than porn. It has all manner of different ways to control your kids computer use, on and offline, and is SUPER simple to use. You can try it on free trial, then it keeps working but freezes the options in place. After the free trial, you can't change any options without buying the program, though.

I've also had to start blocking YouTube from my 4 year old with Autism. I have Firefox and have been using an add on for it called LeechBlock. I tried the safe browse option on YouTube but sometimes it would get turned off without my knowledge. My son liked watching vacuum cleaner videos and videos of kids playing with Super Mario dolls which was fine but he always managed to quickly navigate to something I didn't want him imitating and my intervening made for an instant meltdown. An older child would probably be able to figure out how to turn it off but it's working for us for now.

League Girl,

The issue with You Tube is that not everyone who posts vidoes on there are nice. My son can be watching a video of Mario Wii, and there will be cursing going on by the people playing the vidoe game. That is not appropriate language for a 7yo to hear IMO. Also, sometimes he watches what appears to be a "safe" video and it will turn into something else, something like mario pulling out macheine guns and blowing up other characters, etc...again, IMO not appropriate or antyhign I want my 7yo watch. Sometimes there are sexual themes in the videos, of course man made.

So, I make sure when he watches he is in the same room as me and supervised all the time! There is no other way, really. He is at the point now where he will pick up on what is good or not, and shut it before I even have to say anything. but in the beginning he would try and get away with watching things that I dont approve, and I explained that if I cant trust him that I would take You Tube privelages away. he gets that! Even though I am in the same room, you have to listen and watch whats on casue it might SOUND fine but be something visually imappropriate, or it might LOOK fine but there are curse words, etc...

We created a YouTube account and have previewed videos that we've added to our video subscriptions. You are right, there are all kinds of inappropriate videos on YouTube that don't necessarily violate their community guidelines but which you don't want a 7yo (or even a 12yo) quoting randomly. Most of DS's friends have unfettered access to YouTube and it shows. Think Monty Python or Benny Hill and you'll have a good idea of the type of stuff out there.

A lot of really great stuff is on YouTube, though - including most of the videos from Khan Academy, which DS loves (particularly Vi Hart.) I also love the channel MinutePhysics and Smarter Every Day. DS watches one every day before school and I'm pretty sure he's learning more from them than he is at school!

I think what Washi means is not that we know anything about the general character of those people in particular, but that there is a time and place. Videotaping cursing and crotch-grabbing is significantly different than somebody just letting a curse word slip, because it is planned that way. The problem is, YouTube is supposed to be family-friendly content. People are not supposed to post anything children shouldn't watch - but they do. That isn't nice.

On the flip side, if you have a young child or a child with a delay, they may have trouble knowing the time-and-place rule. They will probably repeat stuff they see on tv and YouTube because they don't know that sometimes it isn't appropriate. I don't like having to screen all my son's viewing, especially now that he's older, but he still scripts of TV, videogames and videos and I don't want him in the principal's office because he innocently copied something that was wildly inappropriate for school.

thanks for all the replies. My boy has not come across anything yet but we would really like to prevent it from happening, feeling some of them may really freak him out. Paul