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Comment by SamBam | Hacker News Reader

Not sure which ones, but my friend's five-year-old girl spends her time watching videos of and older girl showing off her Brand-Name Doll, and all the accessories you can buy for it, and how isn't it just so cute when I put her in THIS accessory, and tune in tomorrow for more accessories you can buy...

That definitely makes me sick.

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True, but in the 1970s when I was a kid, I watched a lot of Saturday Morning cartoons which had a lot of toy ads, and my father's comic books had toy ads too. Selling crap to children too young to understand advertising has a long history.

yeah I remember seeing those ads when I was a child as well, however I think that the invasiveness has increased. the children have this "relationship" with people on youtube, where the youtuber addresses the whole audience, but in a way that children might perceive as friendliness, while the intentions may not be so genuine.

At least the older one is being productive and producing content. Hey, there are some silly YouTubers who make real money from just streaming their life (games, fashion, etc).

Arguably, what they’re doing is better than sitting in front of a passive device like a TV. Sure, they could be spending their time more wisely, but the kids need some sort of down time (exactly how much time is for the parents to figure out).

> Arguably, what they’re doing is better than sitting in front of a passive device like a TV.

But the example given was of a child semi-actively watching ads, for hours and hours. Is that better than watching, say, Sesame Street?

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