Not surprising, but I find the practice disturbing. I imagine it's hard for busy parents to police the commercials the children sees, and much of the marketing to children likely occurs in this unwanted but hard to avoid space. The end result is corporations trying to train children that the best way to live and enjoy one's self is if they buy a steady stream plastic goods made overseas, eventually to be discarded in landfills.
One could imagine a world where advertising to children is no longer considered appropriate, with the understanding that the young minds of the world should not be manipulated by corporate interests.
Or those who want that kind of environment need to find a new way to fund media.
> I imagine it's hard for busy parents to police the commercials the children sees
I hear things like this a lot.
It's not hard, it just takes time.
Is it hard to make that time? If it is too hard to make time to do something with your kids that you yourself think is important, you have to reconsider your priorities.
If you didn't plan appropriately, and decided to have kids before realizing the effort required, then you need to do some risk-reward analysis and determine which things you "have time" to pay attention to and which you don't.
> unwanted but hard to avoid space
Again, not hard, just time consuming.
Time and interest will make sure your kids are well adjusted (well, at least as well adjusted as their parents).
My issue with this (I don’t have kids) is that the people with the least time are the poor. They’re chronically busy, and so taking the time to keep your kids off of this stuff is a privilege not everyone can enjoy.
>a steady stream plastic goods made overseas, eventually to be discarded in landfills.
I don't know what ads your kids are getting but with the possible exception of the "Wish App" ads (which I fervently wish would die a fiery death at the very heart of the sun), most of the ads pitched to my kids are hawking digital ephemera of some sort or another.
"I imagine it's hard for busy parents to police the commercials the children sees"
I'm less worried about the commercials (we pay for YT Premium so there's none of those) but more in YouTube's suggestion algorithm. I worry about one of my kids getting lost down one of those toxic rabbit holes.
If your kid is hooked to youtube, you have a bit more control than than a parent in the 90s whose kid was hooked to cartoons. Today you could opt out of all advertisements by paying Youtube or installing an ad blocker. That said, I'm not sure you can block channels that are entirely ads, like unboxing channels.
One could imagine a world where advertising to children is no longer considered appropriate, with the understanding that the young minds of the world should not be manipulated by corporate interests.
Or those who want that kind of environment need to find a new way to fund media.