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Results highlight content features linked to informal learning, creativity, and children’s competences, while also underscoring persistent risks from inappropriate use, supporting media literacy training and responsible values and rules.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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young children?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"To identify the types of content young children consume on YouTube and to describe its characteristics and their interactions with these channels.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How was the sample of YouTube content selected?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Five YouTube channels in Spanish and Portuguese aimed at early childhood were analysed, starting from the Social Blade category “Made for Kids”.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What main benefits and risks did the study find?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The study found content characteristics that can support informal learning, creativity, and children’s competences, while also stressing ongoing risks related to inadequate use of 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\n[mcarmen.caldeiro@usc.es](mcarmen.caldeiro@usc.es)  \nUniversidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain  \nPaula Renés-Arellano  \npaula.renes@unican.es  \nUniversidad de Cantabria, Spain  \nBárbara Castillo-Abdul  \n[barbara.castillo@urjc.es](barbara.castillo@urjc.es)  \nUniversidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain  \nESAI Business School, Universidad Espíritu Santo  \nIgnacio Aguaded  \n[aguaded@uhu.es](aguaded@uhu.es)  \nUniversidad de Huelva, Spain  \nAbstract  \nThe consumption of videos on the Internet by young children is increasing, and therefore, when they start school, a great part of their knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes will be influenced by the contents they have consumed in social networks such as YouTube, which is considered a third educational agent in childhood, together with families and school. It is thus appropriate to know what types of contents they are consuming, the characteristics of these publications, and their interactions with these channels. The present research will try to provide answers to these questions, with an exploratory and descriptive study with a sample of five YouTube channels in Spanish and Portuguese aimed at early childhood, starting with the category “Made for Kids” from Social Blade. The results of the study allowed us to discover the characteristics of the contents which have an effect on informal learning, favoring the child’s creativity and the development of abilities and competences of children . The conclusions stress the persistence of certain risks associated to the inadequate use of YouTube, inviting reflection on the need to broaden research studies on this subject matter, and the promotion of media and literacy training, through the incorporation of adequate values and behavioral rules. Emphasis is placed on implementing true media literacy in schooling during early childhood to develop the children’s abilities.  \nKeywords  \nSocial networks, media literacy, schools, young children, responsible use of social networks.  \nM.C. Caldeiro-Pedreira, P. Renés-Arellano, B. Castillo-Abdul & I.Aguaded  \nDigital Education Review-Number 41, June 2022 32  \nI. Introduction  \nVirtuality, interactivity, and immediacy are some of the characteristics of modern society, a context in which screens and electronic devices predominate. Both are utilized by increasingly younger children, as indicated by the ITU-2019 (International Telecommunication Union), a United Nations agency specialized on information and communication technologies, when it states that mobile device subscriptions have grown exponentially worldwide. Thus, it can be affirmed that «the actual media ecosystem is characterized by uncountable devices, screens, social networks, and applications within the reach of individuals who are increasingly younger» (Aran-Ramspott et al., 2018, p. 72) . Also, according to the Ditrendia Mobile report in Spain and the World (2021), the use of mobile devices has increased to more than 91 million since 2020, and the mean daily connection time of people to different mobile devices is longer than 6 hours (105 entire days connected) . This increased use does not only affect adults, but young children as well, with the latter term, which will be used in the present work, defined as ages between 0 to 8 years old, according to the classification by Chaudron (2017) . As shown in the report by Qustodio (2021), which analyzed the usage time and consumption of screens by young children, they consumed content through online videos, social networks, games, education, and communication. In this way, it has been confirmed that during the year 2020, due to the covid-19 pandemic, the activities of young children associated to the screens at home highly increased (Harvard Pilgrim, 2020; Wheatman Hill, 2020), with the children spending most of their time learning, playing, socializing, or exercising through them (Andersen and Nielsen, 2020; Tíscar","cbCaikY783uIo9re","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikY783uIo9re","pdf",153743,"English","# Introduction\n## YouTube as an alternative education channel","[{\"question\":\"What was the goal of the exploratory study on YouTube for young children?\",\"answer\":\"To identify the types of content young children consume on YouTube and to describe its characteristics and their interactions with these channels.\"},{\"question\":\"How was the sample of YouTube content selected?\",\"answer\":\"Five YouTube channels in Spanish and Portuguese aimed at early childhood were analysed, starting from the Social Blade category “Made for Kids”.\"},{\"question\":\"What main benefits and risks did the study find?\",\"answer\":\"The study found content characteristics that can support informal learning, creativity, and children’s competences, while also stressing ongoing risks related to inadequate use of YouTube.\"}]","YouTube videos for young children: an exploratory study | PDF",1792092493]