When it comes to stories for children, there’s a sense of dismissiveness in the online community, as well as in the public.

Stories are foundational for any childhood. Stories help make sense of a world that refuses to make sense. The stories that resonate with us stay with us and help us in ways we don’t fully understand.

I wouldn’t say it’s magic, but there’s something about the way our minds work that storytelling has the power to tap into. You might have felt it too.

With all that said and done, I’ve always wanted to write a sort of love letter to the movies that raised me.

“It’s A Film For Kids”

There have been times that I’ve said something like this, or heard other people say this. And there was this need for me to sound more mature than I felt, or more adult than I actually was. This phrase was uttered often, as if there wasn’t much depth to the movies that are made for children. That a film that was made for kids can’t have any nuance or depth to them.

And perhaps, the dismissiveness is rooted in a sense of fear. At a certain point, we all think ourselves too mature to have to learn anything from a film intended for children… because that somehow implies that we failed.

Adulthood was supposed to mean that you’ve figured it all out and that there are no more things that you don’t know. But… it is a challenge. Every day, we can be surprised. There are still things to learn. Things to do right. It never stops.

It’s a noble and difficult job, telling stories to children. Their minds do not fully have everything in place, but their brains work faster than anyone else to catch up. This puts them at a learning rate that’s much faster than the average adult.

YouTube and Children

I find it terrifying that YouTube has now grown into one of the most popular platforms that parents use to entertain their children, because the strict regulation that is present on TV and in film, is not applicable to the online world.

In my opinion, giving children content that is engineered for an algorithm is a very dangerous choice to do. It’s not my intention to gate keep, but social media is a very toxic poison for young minds, and in a developmental stage, YouTube should be kept far away from children.

Don’t take it from me, here’s James Bridle’s TED talk on the absolute nightmare that is YouTube Kids.

Like with everything else, there are nuances. There are content creators genuinely trying to teach children things. But YouTube’s algorithm doesn’t reward them with views nearly as much as the engineered videos that are toxic, and pointless drivel that add up to nothing.

The Future

AI, or more specifically generative AI, is going to change how movies and TV are going to be made.

The vast majority of the media space is not going to have real actors or cameramen or all that complex work that must be put in to make a film. It’s all… generated.

I can get technical, but it’s more interesting to examine what this means for children.

Algorithms, are king in this day and age. Companies must make money, and for making money, users must view ads. What this means is that all content that will make money are the ones that drive up views.

Children are the most vulnerable to this, and as such… AI-generated children’s content that hold no value of their own. Soon, individual channels can flood their entire feed with thousands upon thousands of videos, all churned out to satisfy the algorithm.

It happened years ago, around 2015, and I believe it’s going to get worse. Much worse.

All is not lost, the world is filled with rich and wonderful stories that are aimed at children. Just because AI may take over the Internet doesn’t mean that all these timeless classics simply disappear. Dreamworks and Sony are still pushing the boundaries of animation, Spielberg’s classics are great lessons. There are thousands of beautiful stories to inspire children with.

It simply is a matter of access.