Hacker News Reader

Comment by impostervt | Hacker News Reader

My kids, 5 and 2, have really been into these weird toy unboxing videos recently. They're fine with me from a "ok for kids" point of view, though I don't see the attraction. Anyway, I just wonder if these type of videos will be available.

example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_e8CPuVepA

View on HN

These things are seriously blowing up! I've talked to so many parents who mention that their kids are hooked on these things. These kids just watch some random toy be unwrapped then hit the next suggested video for hours. I also hear stories about how then they beg their parents for the toy. They're just really long commercials.

My kids don't seem as interested but it might be they're a bit old for them now. I have noticed that they watch less and less Netflix and more and more weird cartoons on YouTube instead. I have to watch them closely.

Ya, I don't mind the unboxing videos, but the other day my 5 year old had somehow gotten from Frozen sing alongs to a weird manga-version of Let it Go. I figured from that point she was probably only a few clicks a way from really weird videos and made her go back to the eggs...

Medium and artstyle are no particular indication of content; you get "really weird" videos in every form and style.

My daughter isn't much into YouTube now but went through a phase of watching about an hour a day and, boy, she watched some bizarre stuff! I think she watched more obscure Russian and Slavic cartoons from the 70s than anything in English. None offensive, but certainly weird. I'm kinda hoping it rubs off in terms of being generally progressive and a weird arty person though.. we shall see ;-)

(And before anyone asks, being exposed to hours of non-English language content appears to have had zero effect in either a negative or positive way, alas.)

same here - we love masha and bear and some weird south korean cars-as-people thing

Relax, your kids are normal -- this is a well-known phenomenon amongst children born in the last decade:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/magazine/a-mothers-journey...

Ha! Thank you for the link. I wasn't worried, I generally figure all kids do "weird" things. I guess I'm more worried they won't be able to see these videos on the Kids youtube, and thus the app won't help me protect them from weirder things they sometimes stumble onto.

The Disney collector lady is something like the #1 youtuber in terms of views in North America (or close the last time I checked). I don't think youtube is going to skip her.

I also think that the way the DisneyCollector sound is recorded plays a role. It sounds a lot like binaural audio - http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8021733/3d-audio-3dio-bina...

My 3 year old son loves these videos as well (especially the toy car unboxing videos on Youtube). I'm glad someone linked to an article about it. It seems really odd to me that he loves them, but he finally seems to be over them after a 4 month stint of always seeking them out, trying to spell out the words to find them, etc

Cant believe some of these toy unboxing videos have +70 million views, insane

Same for my nephew. He can watch hours of these unboxing some random toy video. But then I too like watching walkthrough/gameplay and sometimes unboxing of some gadgets. :) I think we all watch such vids.

"Cant believe some of these toy unboxing videos have +70 million views, insane"

My son watched the same skylanders unboxing every day for ... weeks? It adds up.

Kids viewing habits are not like adults. I saw the movie "sorcerer" (a tolerably good movie from the 70s, although its timeless) and its pretty cool but I'm probably not watching it again until my next reincarnation. Kids will watch the same thing over and over.

My son (3) became obsessed with watching these Kinder adverts, to the point where I had to delete the YouTube app and put him in cold turkey until he regained interest in the (brilliant) BBC CBeebies content.

If this app/service can strip out all of that crap I'd pay significantly more than I do for most apps. Easily.

same experince here also playdo mini burgers & fries and other weirdnes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LazzJtxNz4c

Reply on news.ycombinator.com