U.S. children YouTube negative content consumption 2021

According to a March to April 2021 survey of U.S. parents, 70 percent of YouTube videos watched by children did not include any physical violence. However, 20 percent of videos included mild or limited physical violence, and a further 14 percent of video content consumed by children aged up to eight years had persistent themes of violence. This makes physical violence one of the most common types of negative content in YouTube videos watched by children. In contrast, drinking, drugs, or smoking was not present in 96 percent of video content that was popular with kids. Generally speaking, the great majority of the videos analyzed did not present any negative content.

Frequency of negative content appearing in YouTube videos watched by young children in the United States as of April 2020

Characteristic	Not present	Present in mild form or limited amount	Present persistently or to a major degree
Physical violence	70%	16%	14%
Interpersonal violence	80%	20%	-
Scariness	83%	14%	4%
Sexual content	94%	4%	2%
Bad language	81%	12%	6%
Drinking, drugs, smoking	96%	3%	2%
Stereotypes	91%	9%	-

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Release date

November 2020

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

March 26 and April 1, 2020

Number of respondents

191 parents

Age group

0-8 years

Special properties

data concerning only the primary YouTube platform, excluding YouTube Kids

Supplementary notes

According to the source: "a total of 191 parents who participated in [the study]provided a list of the last videos their children watched on the main YouTube site. Sample: 1,639 videos analyzed.

Always according to the source: " All categories coded 0 (not present), 1 (present in mild form or limited amount), or 2 (present persistently or to a major degree), except for wish fulfillment, interpersonal violence, or stereotypes, which were coded not present/present."
Values may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

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