youtube
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Last year when my dad came down for his winter visit, he brought his laptop with the newly updated google earth. The new feature were youtube videos. Most of them were road videos taken while people drove from one place to another. There were some improv videos that were silly but mostly harmless. The problem is, the boys loved the videos so much that dad never got a chance to use his own computer. So I made the decision to put youtube on the boys' computers. So they watched their favorite videos over and over again. And over again.
Now I know youtube is not child friendly and there aren't ways to make only safe videos viewable. But the boys played the videos loud enough that I could tell what they were watching. And they pretty much stayed away from the questionable stuff. Ryan found old NASCAR videos and Andy got hooked on a kid named gluse who loves to ride in elevators. One of thefeatures problems of youtube is that they suggest other videos. Andy found more elevator videos. But some of these users swore and Andy would repeat it. So I had to give him other words to say instead of damn and hell. (Poppa will not be happy to hear even darn and heck used but then again can't we blame him for this whole mess? )
Ryan found video game videos on youtube. He would watch someone else play rather than play himself. Oy! One of persons he chose to watch used even more colorful language. I was able to tell Ryan not to use those words before I heard him say them. He has a better understanding of bad language.
Recently, Andy found Thomas and Friends. We have the dvds but he likes watching the clips. I think he likes that he has more control and can start and stop without me yelling at him that he's going to break the dvd player. From there, he moved to Elmo's World and Teletubbies. Oh no! I thought those days were gone forever! Today he has found Simpson's Hit and Run on youtube. He first saw this in 2005 when we went to visit my sister and her (older) boys. It was one of the first video games the boys got for their GameCube. Andy thought it was fun to crash into things and get points for it. At the time, I thought it was harmless. And it a way, I like that he likes it as he is 11 and boys likes those sort of things. Frankly, I'd rather have him watch Homer that Teletubbies. At least until he understands the humor and uses it against me.
Now I know youtube is not child friendly and there aren't ways to make only safe videos viewable. But the boys played the videos loud enough that I could tell what they were watching. And they pretty much stayed away from the questionable stuff. Ryan found old NASCAR videos and Andy got hooked on a kid named gluse who loves to ride in elevators. One of the
Ryan found video game videos on youtube. He would watch someone else play rather than play himself. Oy! One of persons he chose to watch used even more colorful language. I was able to tell Ryan not to use those words before I heard him say them. He has a better understanding of bad language.
Recently, Andy found Thomas and Friends. We have the dvds but he likes watching the clips. I think he likes that he has more control and can start and stop without me yelling at him that he's going to break the dvd player. From there, he moved to Elmo's World and Teletubbies. Oh no! I thought those days were gone forever! Today he has found Simpson's Hit and Run on youtube. He first saw this in 2005 when we went to visit my sister and her (older) boys. It was one of the first video games the boys got for their GameCube. Andy thought it was fun to crash into things and get points for it. At the time, I thought it was harmless. And it a way, I like that he likes it as he is 11 and boys likes those sort of things. Frankly, I'd rather have him watch Homer that Teletubbies. At least until he understands the humor and uses it against me.