These children exhibit loss of appetite, sleeplessness, crying fits and fear.ĭaniels said parents should heed YouTube's terms of service, which states, "The Service is not intended for children under 13." She continues, "I'm seeing this impacting kids between the ages of six to 12, but it's the younger ones that are really concerning."Įven more disturbing than the videos that cause stressful emotions are the ones containing sexually explicit content that target children. Over the last five years, she said she has seen a rise in cases of children suffering from anxiety triggered by videos they have watched on YouTube. "YouTube is an ongoing conversation in my therapy practice, which indicates there's a problem," she said. She is the founder of, an educational website for parents.
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Natasha Daniels, LCSW, child psychotherapist in Chandler, Arizona, agrees.
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Source: American Psychological Association Your child is eating too much or too little. Your child is sleeping too much or too little. Your child is clinging to a parent or teacher. Your child is complaining, crying, or displaying fearful reactions.
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Signs your child is experiencing emotional stress These offending videos are only a fraction of YouTube's kid-friendly universe, yet they are another example of the potential for abuse on digital platforms that rely on algorithms to police content - and the latest in a string of reports that reveal the dark side of technology on young minds. What's worse, some of this content is filtering down into YouTube Kids, an app launched by Google in 2015 that has 11 million viewers and is supposed to contain only child-friendly content. "Children who repeatedly experience stressful and/or fearful emotions may underdevelop parts of their brain's prefrontal cortex and frontal lobe, the parts of the brain responsible for executive functions, like making conscious choices and planning ahead, said Donna Volpitta, Ed.D., founder of The Center for Resilient Leadership." More from Modern Medicine: Apple urged to take action on smartphone addiction some call 'digital heroin' Internet addiction is sweeping America, affecting millions Scientists narrow down the startling risk factors that can cause autismĪccording to medical experts, this content has an adverse effect on the developing brain.