A top tech YouTuber has praised the platform for adding game-changing a 'huge' new feature.
Social media is woven into nearly every aspect of our lives, but sometimes stepping away from the constant stream of content is exactly what's needed, especially for younger users.
This feels more than relevant now, as YouTube has been flooded with content that's being classed as 'AI slop', despite some creators raking in serious money by churning it out with just a few hours of work per day.
Meanwhile, some scientific studies are beginning to examine the effects of the phenomenon dubbed 'brain rot' on cognitive function and behaviour.
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Now, a popular tech YouTuber is praising the platform's parental control feature, which lets families block or restrict access to YouTube Shorts.
On an episode of the WAN Show, Linus Tech Tips (hosted by Linus Sebastian) says YouTube's customisation is a major step forward for parents trying to manage their children's screen time.
“I think the biggest one for me was actually the parental controls,” he said. “I can now have the granularity to turn off shorts or limit shorts directly for my dependents, which is huge, because I don’t mind my kids using YouTube at all.
"I do mind a lot them doom-scrolling Shorts."
His podcast co-host agreed: “Shorts are a different thing. It’s a different beast entirely.”
Sebastian also compared past moral panics with today's easily accessible short-form content, saying: “I do feel a little bit as every generation goes through this."
The content creator explained: "Books were once the devil and an idol pastime that rotted your brain, and then it was radio, and then it was TV, and then it was video games and then and then and then and then and so, you know, I’m sitting here going, ‘Well, you know, I grew up with YouTube and I turned out okay.’ But these shorts, these shorts are bad. They’ll rot your brain."
The Google-owned platform has been steadily rolling out more family-oriented tools over the past few years, including supervised accounts and content filtering and more recently, plans to crack down on 'AI slop.'
YouTube CEO Neal Mohen wrote, as per Forbes: "As an open platform, we allow for a broad range of free expression while ensuring YouTube remains a place where people feel good spending their time.”
To combat the mass AI-generated content, Mohan pledged to ramp up the platform's reliance on AI moderation.
“To reduce the spread of low-quality AI content, we’re actively building on our established systems that have been very successful in combatting spam and clickbait, and reducing the spread of low quality, repetitive content,” he added.