YouTube CEO Gives Parental Advice on Watching Videos

The CEO of YouTube recently admitted that she doesn’t allow her own kids to watch videos on the main YouTube site.

51-year-old Susan Wojcicki, who has been the CEO of the world’s leading video-sharing platform since 2014, has five children and admits her younger children are limited to watching videos on YouTube Kids, which is designed for children younger than 13. She also believes in monitoring her children’s time consuming online content.

“I allow my younger kids to use YouTube Kids, but I limit the amount of time that they’re on it,” Wojcicki told CBS’ 60 Minutes. “I think too much of anything is not a good thing, but there’s a lot you can learn on YouTube.”

The most used social network in the United States, YouTube reports that people spend 1 billion hours every day watching videos on their site. However, YouTube recently agreed to pay $170 million to settle allegations that they violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and targeted children with ads. The company is also being forced to cleanse the site of controversial content, which can be a challenge when 500 hours of video are uploaded to the platform every minute.

“I think it’s incredibly important that we have responsibility framework, and that has been my #1 priority,” Wojcicki said when asked if the dark things of the world are defining YouTube. “We’re removing content that violates our policies. We removed, just in the last quarter, 9 million videos.”

In summary, Wojcicki estimated that through a combination of machines and about 10,000 employees focused solely on monitoring controversial content, YouTube has recently cut down time Americans spend watching controversial content by 70%.

At the end of the day though, when it comes to a website where there’s a fine line between policing content while maintaining an open platform, parents would be wise to follow Wojcicki’s own caution when it comes to your kids watching content on the popular video site.