YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are facing a flood of AI-generated content aimed at children. It is produced in large quantities because it is easy and quick to make. However, AI-generated videos have inherent flaws, such as visual inconsistencies, narrative gaps, and lack of realism. Although it’s still too early for comprehensive research, experts have already expressed concern about the impact these videos have on children’s cognitive development.
Two children drive down a busy street in an animated video aimed at teaching road safety. Then, one of them turns into a balloon and flies away. The posted YouTube account was created on April 5, 2025, and has already uploaded over 4,000 videos. Currently, it has been viewed over 1 million times. Another video shows a wolf cub hatching from an egg, followed by a tiger cub and then a baby goat. In between is a chick, the only animal that actually lays eggs in those 10 seconds, which has amassed 445,000 views.
These videos are proliferating. This phenomenon is new, as until recently it was not possible to easily generate videos using AI. The question is: what effect does this type of content have on young children? Fairplay, an NGO focused on protecting children in the digital environment, has published a letter to YouTube and Google asking them to suppress AI-generated content on the YouTube Kids platform, which is designed to only feature videos suitable for children.
This is the starting point for a campaign calling on YouTube to remove low-quality, AI-generated children’s content and change its algorithm to prevent recommending this type of video to minors.
“For children, it can be very confusing. When children are young, they try to absorb as much information as possible about the world, and every little moment they see or experience helps them develop a deeper understanding of how things work,” says Rachel Franz, program director at Fair Play.
In one of these animated videos, a dog plays in a colorful environment. The ball awkwardly slides across the water, appears in the dog’s mouth, and then suddenly disappears without explanation. There’s also a Frisbee that skims across the grass, looking like it’s about to fall, but it never lands, bouncing in the air like a ghost ball.
“When children are regularly shown videos like this of objects suddenly disappearing, their brains begin to try to understand what happened to the ball, and they begin to question whether the ball can actually do that. “It can affect their understanding of how to play with a ball. Children’s brains may pick up on abnormalities in these videos and have difficulty processing the information and learning from what is shown,” Franz said.
The account that posted this video has uploaded more than 60 videos, each ranging from 2 to 16 minutes, in just a few days. This is a pace that is impossible for traditional production companies. These types of profiles on social media use AI as a tool to create and publish videos in bulk. The more the better. The goal is to gain views and thereby increase your monetization potential.
To Ana Rojo de la Vega, early childhood education teacher, member of the Aragon Society for Psychopedagogy, and author of this book. Neuroeducation in the classroom and at homethese videos often suffer from excessive speed: “Everything moves fast, like a flash. And life is not like that. Sometimes you have to wait.” In addition to this, there is sometimes a disconnection with reality in these types of videos, such as videos showing newly hatched tigers or goats.
“The content that all animals hatch from eggs is shocking, because of course it is difficult for children to understand the different animals and their sounds. If you mix up the content and show all animals hatch from eggs, learning becomes even more complicated,” Rojo de la Vega points out.
Educational psychologists refer to the confusion caused by children’s symbolic play, their ability to imitate the reality they perceive around them. This could be a cooking game or imagining a cardboard box as a car. “During symbolic play, we bring many objects, such as plastic, to life, so children can sometimes have a hard time distinguishing between fiction and reality. Trying to further confuse children with these types of videos makes learning even more difficult,” she said.
confusion of reality and fiction
Videos of animals wearing eggshells are plotless clips designed to captivate viewers. This display lasts only a few seconds, then the next content is displayed. Once the first piece of content is viewed, the algorithm is more likely to recommend other content along the same lines. A study by video editing platform Kapwing found that 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users by algorithms are low-quality, AI-generated videos. The company identified 278 of the most popular channels around the world that contain only this type of video. In total, they have amassed 63 billion views, 221 million subscribers, and are estimated to earn approximately $117 million annually.
Another finding of Kapwing’s research is that channels originating from Spain have the most subscribers, with more than 20 million subscribers. However, some of these channels are no longer available. In recent months, YouTube has suspended multiple accounts that produce AI-generated content aimed at children.
Nicolás Matji, producer and co-founder of Lightbox studio, is well aware of this surge. His production company has just completed the fourth series. Taddeo Jones An animated adventure comedy film to be released in August. The approaches are very different. “As content creators, we are always aware that our actions have a significant impact and that we have moral and ethical obligations, and therefore we are conscious of what values we instill in our actions,” he emphasizes.
There are also surreal videos generated by AI, adding to the confusion. Many of them show animals performing acrobatics or impossible movements. In this TikTok video, a cow dances on its hind legs. “Over time, children will understand that the animations are different. But videos that look real can confuse children even more,” says Franz.
This can have an undesirable effect on young viewers who are still in the process of cognitive development. “It takes a few years for children to be able to distinguish between fantasy and reality, and they can’t do it until they’re five years old. Children’s brains are programmed to treat everything as if it’s real, and this also applies to video content,” Franz explains.
Unlike traditional audiovisual content for young children, AI-generated videos are designed to capture children’s attention without worrying about the consequences. “Kids learn through images, and I worry about the garbage overshadowing all the valuable content that is out there,” Matji recalls. “When I make Tadeo Watching the video will help you think about what values you are instilling in your actions, and you can control them. And that’s something we’re very proud of. But if your goal is volume, you’ll get rewarded for reaching more views, so anything is fine. As a result, garbage will be generated. ”
Here, Matji is referring to the incentives that social media platforms offer to content creators. Views are prioritized and achieved through attention-getting tactics at all costs. The music in these videos is also AI-generated and used along with the images to achieve the same goal. Franz also focuses on the economic side, saying, “Often the purpose is to make money and, in a way, hijack children’s attention so they can spend more time on the platform. That way, the creators, and ultimately YouTube, have more data and more money.”
One problem is that AI-generated content is not clearly identified. It also cannot be filtered. There is no option to do this on YouTube or other social media platforms. Rojo de la Vega’s general recommendation is to avoid screens as much as possible. “And if you’re going to let your child use a screen for a little while, it’s best to be with your child and make sure you know what they’re watching. Otherwise, your child will be watching video after video and you won’t even know what they’re watching,” the educational psychologist concludes.
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