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Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

How easy it is to start to sound like our parents' generation eventually! Video games were ruining society once and, before that, discotheques, TVs and rock music.

I have two young children who enjoy YouTube more than TV and while they do watch a lot of weird (kids') channels, they've learnt a lot too and I haven't seen it play out in any negative way so far. At the least, they've seen people with many more opinions and of many more cultures and races than I had at their age - a good thing, to me.

Let's keep an eye on this and continue to be observant, caring parents who don't give up responsibilities to an iPad, but at the same time let's not be the parents who say the Smashing Pumpkins' lyrics are scrambling your brains when they aren't.

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While I agree with the premise, I'd have to say there's quite a bit more artistic value to Smashing Pumpkins or Marilyn Manson, or whatever other 'satanic' artists our parents hated than these strange, mindless kids YouTube videos.

Some content is better, some worse. Arguing with the good content of our own generation against the bad content of the next generation is probably very typical for all of us.

I would argue that artistic value is highly subjective. People used to argue that jazz was just random noise and nonsense for a long time.

True, and I don't want to jump the overprotective-parent gun here, but what I think is worth keeping an eye on with these videos is how they are not an underrepresented group expressing their creativity, but rather a very well represented group targeting a vulnerable audience. There are no easy lines to draw, but I think it does bear further scrutiny and discussion (especially from folks used to defending forms of media from demonization.)

I think that's the stance that parents should have. As a non-parent, I respect that the line between silly-but-harmless and silly-and-harmful can be very blurry. You are trying to see the world through two different sets of eyes, and those are going to conflict. It can be a tough call on where to draw the line because while I very strongly believe in free-speech and freedom from censorship for adults, I understand that for children it's completely different. Especially when all children are not the same.

Ultimately I think it's important to know what your children are looking at and watching, especially when it comes to the internet.

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