Good website but little kids might find some offensive or scary some sexual vids have not ben flagged and curious kids 10- might find them but for over 10 great website for enjoying the internet
YouTube
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
The world's stage -- supervision required.
On this site kids can: create a social network, create and share content, post comments, watch videos
updated 08.20.09
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 13–14
The good stuff
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Educational value:
What to watch out for
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Online interaction:
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User-created content:
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Violence:
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Sex:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
How safe is it?
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Personal privacy:
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Parental controls:
What Parents Need to Know
This review of YouTube was written by Caroline Knorr
Parents need to know that anyone can view anything on this video-sharing site. Because the videos aren't rated for age-appropriateness, you never know what you're going to get. That’s part of the fun of the YouTube -- but it makes it hard to know what your kids are viewing unless you're supervising. But it's not just the video content that's a concern. User comments can be rude and negative, and even benign searches can return X-rated results. Still, YouTube remains one of the most creative outlets on the Web, offering kids myriad ways to exercise their creativity.
Families Can Talk About
Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help
- Preschool: From The Wiggles to Sesame Street, lots of preschool shows have dedicated channels on YouTube. To avoid finding videos that might be inappropriate, stick to shows you know or preview them before showing your preschooler. Learn about the effects of scary movies on kids and always sit with preschoolers while they use the computer.
- Elementary school: Kids this age love to find silly stuff on YouTube -- especially with their friends -- but they can also stumble across age-inappropriate material. Learn more about managing their YouTube use. Also, reinforce the importance of Internet Safety.
- Middle school: As kids start developing their own interests, they may gravitate towards digital media creation -- a hobby you can feel good about nurturing, as long as they're smart about how they use YouTube.
- High school: If teens are following the rules of good Internet behavior, you can allow them a certain level of independence in using YouTube. See why it's still important to remain vigilant about YouTube in the teen years.
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More on YouTube
What’s the Story?
YOUTUBE.COM is a site where users upload and share original videos. Users can "tag" their videos with subject headings, such as "dogs," "comedy," or "topless." This lets others find videos featuring subjects that interest them. It's a popular place to go to see the latest silly Internet video that everyone's talking about. The great majority of videos are of concert footage, sporting events, bootlegged commercial video, and homemade movies. Want to see video of Michael Jackson picking up his "Legends" award in Tokyo? It's here. Like to see the winner of last week's Masters horse show in Germany? No problem. Of course, you can also see hentai (Japanese pornographic animation, often with big-eyed waifs in bondage). Users create "playlists" of favorite videos and can join communities of users who like to watch the same types of things. If you decide to submit a video yourself, you can choose whether you want to allow people to comment on it or not. If you decide to allow comments, you can moderate them first before making them live on the site.
Is It Any Good?
Content runs the gamut from the totally benign to the totally outrageous to the potentially harmful. The user-rating system is fairly trustworthy, though -- if lots of people pan something, it's probably not worth watching and if users give something a high rating, it's probably pretty good. The user ratings have nothing to do with age-appropriateness, though.
Although you can't automatically get to the adult videos without logging in, anyone can lie about their age and get an "adult" account. Most of the videos aren't pornographic, but some of the comments about the videos can be vulgar. Submitters are cautioned to refrain from showing personally identifiable information in their movies, or images that would help a stranger identify their locations. "Broadcasters" are able to release videos to the world, or just to a circle of friends and family. Additionally, users can easily remove their videos from the site anytime. As with any site that offers user-generated content, it's viewer beware.
Our Members Say
See all 458 member reviews
Most Recent Reviews
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I rate this title iffy for age 9 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate language
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
- Educational
good site
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate language
- My highlights are:
- User content is age appropriate
perfect for tweens
Perfect....
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I rate this title iffy for age 10 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Excessive consumerism
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
- Educational
- User content is age appropriate
I don't know
I can't say I love this website or that I hate it. The good thing is that it inspires children to be creative. Creativity is something all children need but CAN get better sources of it in other places. Alot of bad languge, sexual behavoir and other inoproproit things have popped up on youtube. One time, my four year old got on youtube all by herself. She clicked a random vidio becouse she saw Rudolph the red nosed deer becouse she likes him. It turned out to be a gory horor.She was scared out of her mind and ran to me. She showed me this clip.I banned her from the internet for a while. Although in this case youtube has been unsafe, my sister bought a sofywear that block inopproproit content. Youtube can either be terrible or great.
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I rate this title iffy for age 7 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- My highlights are:
- Educational
- User content is age appropriate
innopropriet things on youtube
i go on youtube for music reasons only some interviews on lady gaga or adam lambert ppl i like but there can be issues it would not let my age go in so i had to use my moms but my concerns are up there things can be innopropriet i have seen innopropriet things on thier i really dont like and im 10.
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I rate this title iffy for age 13 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- My highlights are:
- Educational
How old do u hav 2 hav a youtube account?
My twin sister thinks everything on youtube is inapropropriot but its reely not! Some videos r good some r bad! ok!
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate language
- My highlights are:
- Educational
Good site
Some of the videos comments have cussing in them which I don't approve of. I like watching the music videos and people making their own videos to the song. You can also watch trailers which I really like!
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate language
- My highlights are:
- Educational
Good site
Some of the videos comments have cussing in them which I don't approve of. I like watching the music videos and people making their own videos to the song. You can also watch trailers which I really like!
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate language
- My highlights are:
- Educational
Good site
Some of the videos comments have cussing in them which I don't approve of. I like watching the music videos and people making their own videos to the song. You can also watch trailers which I really like!
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I rate this title iffy for age 15 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Excessive consumerism
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
good but some innaproprate videos
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I rate this title iffy for age 17 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
- Educational
- User content is age appropriate
MUST BE SUPERVISED
It's YouTube; the options are endless. If you have kids under 17, and even OVER 17, this site needs to be SUPERVISED. Watch your kids while on it, otherwise block it. There is way too much provocative and dirty material to stumble across.
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I rate this title iffy for age 9 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
Anyone forgetting a thingy?
I tell you all, YouTube can also start a literal 'cyberbullying war' inbetween two or more people so your children best be careful... But hey, atleast they can express themselves in comments or videos but you'd best be careful with that, they can say anything they want in the comments box like "This video is so f---ing g-- man, erase it" or "d000dz this d00d is an idiot so f--- his videos and his mom". Also, during online comedy videos or series, like Arby 'n' the Chief, mom jokes are really common, for example in a scene when the two get annoyed over Call of Duty 4, the chief says "When i kills a guy, instead of showing me killing him it should go into his bedroom showing him having sex with his mother". So in the end, watch out for the rain of inappropriate content which is almost everywhere on YouTube.
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
great
i love youtube and it shoud be on for ages 10 and up
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I rate this title iffy for age 5 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Excessive consumerism
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
- Educational
- Safety isn't an issue
- User content is age appropriate
perfect for 10/100 yrs old but not for 0/9 yrs old.
I think Youtube is Ok for ages 5+.
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I rate this title iffy for age 12 and give it
- My concerns are:
- User content isn't age appropriate
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I rate this title iffy for age 9 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Excessive consumerism
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
- Educational
- Safety isn't an issue
- User content is age appropriate
You never know what will come up.
I have had an account for a year, and have watched videos on youtube the year or two before too. While I love the site for watching and sharing videos, there are some issues with the user generated content. There is a lot of copyright infringment. Also, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has accidentally stumbled on completely inappropriate content (including gory animation and porn). Pornographic video does usually get caught and removed, but violent content is a lot easier to find :( There is also sometimes hate speech in the video comments for popular videos; there are even some user channels that have hate speech on their profiles. But one who uses the site wisely, doesn't submit content that identifies their street address or stuff like that, doesn't watch the inappropriate videos on the site, will get a lot out of Youtube. There are many technical glitches which bug the heck out of many regular users, but that is a minor drawback.
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I rate this title on for age 7 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Excessive consumerism
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
- Educational
- Safety isn't an issue
- User content is age appropriate
Great site, just can be innapropiate
Ok youtube is like google. If your kids search for inappropriate stuff, this is not the site for them. Everyone knows about this site so I'll keep it short. Youtube has amazing talent, hillarious videos, and awesome tricks. It also has VERY innapropiate videos too. It all depends on the kid. Good site for mature kids!
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I rate this title iffy for age 12 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Excessive consumerism
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
- Educational
OK
It's great! If your kids are trustable, it's mostly fine. It has a lot of technical difficulties, though.
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I rate this title on for age 13 and give it
- My highlights are:
- Educational
- Safety isn't an issue
- User content is age appropriate
Perfect for teens but not anyone younger than 13
This site is the best site I have ever used to get the music I want. Most sites take all kinds of of downloading. I like to be able to just type in what I want and click on the video I'm looking for. It makes things less of a hassle and makes it faster for me to get my work done.
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I rate this title on for age 13 and give it
it cool
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I rate this title on for age 11 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
perfect for 11 year old kids
this website is the best i love it. when ever i go on the computer i always go on this right away if i dont go on it at all i most be sick or something lol
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Ratings at a Glance
| 60% | of parents say the sexual behavior isn't age appropriate |
| 58% | of parents say it has language their kids can't use |
| 48% | of parents don't think the messages are positive |
| 46% | of parents feel user generated content is iffy |
| 44% | of parents feel the site is not safe |
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