(Also a parent) there are two ways to use Youtube. One is to let the child choose what to watch and, I agree, this is a disaster. There's no possible guardrails that would work with their current algorithmic models. The other is to find things they (or I) are interested in, particularly tutorials, and then watch them together and then apply that to real life. It is a fantastic tutorial device and my kids have learned how to do things I wouldn't have known how to do or teach myself. I don't think there is a better substitute for this use case.

Yep, YouTube is banned for our daughter except for pre-vetted videos as the content and ads can’t be trusted. We tried the Kids app but the content was 99% terrible.

I do recommend The Kid Should See This though, a really good selection of curated videos.

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/

The app has 2.5 million reviews and 131 million downloads, so it is obviously used by a lot of parents.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1251942/global-youtube-k...

My kids routinely watch YouTube (with me): videos about carpentry, pottery, machining, robotics, electronics, chemistry, microbiology, recreational mathematics, visual effects, history, ...

It’s really hard to (really truly) ban YouTube and not ban any search engine.

You might find your child spending 2 hours a day on ddg.

Anecdote is not data. We have data

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1301730/us-time-spent-ch...