The day I told my six-year-old that he couldn’t have his own YouTube channel, he cried as though his heart was broken. By YouTube’s rules, Wesley had to be at least 13 years old – and to be honest, I thought even that sounded a little young.

I underestimated the power of my son’s dream to become a YouTuber, thinking they were like my own daydreams at that age that I might be ‘discovered’ singing in my front driveway and become a star. But the world has changed. My son doesn’t dream of his talents being “discovered.” He knows that he already has the power to share his talents with the world, if only his mama would let him.

Parenting kids in an age where even a six-year-old kid is technically capable of making, uploading and sharing his videos is really difficult. As I have already discovered, even when I think I’m doing a good job of setting limits on technology use, my son’s peers are outpacing me. We’ve been sharing funny cat videos and YouTube clips from Sesame Street with our kids since they were toddlers, but my kids never YouTubed alone … until a neighbourhood friend introduced my son to the world of Minecraft game walkthroughs. Suddenly even my four-year-old knew how to use the iPad to find and watch Stampylongnose and iBallistic Squid share their exploits in Minecraft.

At first, I panicked. Who knew what he’d been exposed to? I talked myself down, and decided to find out. As calmly and casually as I could, I asked Wes about Stampylongnose and the other Minecraft YouTubers he had discovered. What were their videos about? What did he like about them? I sat down and cuddled on the couch with my boy and we watched a few videos together. In the videos, the gamers simply narrate what they are doing as they play. Because Minecraft is such an open-ended game, it can actually get pretty interesting to see what people have built, and often they share how they have done it so that their audience can make their own version when they play. The videos are not what I would choose to spend time watching, but there’s nothing wrong with them.

As parents, our job is not to protect our kids from all risk. Risk is part of life. I want my kids to learn how to assess and mitigate risks, not avoid them. Yes, there are corners of the Internet that are dark and full of dangers, but as I’ve learned in my own life, when used thoughtfully, social media can be a great force for good, too.

With my kids, I have decided to teach them about the Internet in a similar way to how we teach them about sex, drugs, death and other awkward but essential topics: I aim to provide just enough information, (hopefully) just in time, and be available to listen and answer questions whenever the kids need to talk.

We talk about how not all videos on YouTube are intended for kids, and some of the things to watch out for, such as bad language (which he is already aware of from school friends). I tell him to come talk to me if he sees anything that he has questions about or that makes him feel uncomfortable. And I check in regularly, listening in and asking questions about what he’s up to. Advertising is something else we talk about. We hardly watch any cable television at our house, so most of the ads my children see are on YouTube. For the most part, they skip the ads, but when an ad does catch their attention they often mention it to me and we talk about what the ad is selling and what it means.

I think it’s great that he wants to make his own videos, so I am supporting him by finding age-appropriate classes where he can learn the tools and tricks of the trade. I have already bought him a tripod to make it easier to make stop-motion videos with the Lego app on his iPod, and if he remains interested I may get him some more equipment to make videos for future birthdays and Christmases.

As for having his own YouTube account? The answer is still no. In time we’ll cross that bridge, but for now I am encouraging him to make videos for sharing with us and his friends only.

 

Bio: Briana Tomkinson is a New Westminster parent.