AI Generated Kids’ Content Sparks Fears of Confusing Young Children’s Sense of Reality

Concerns are growing among child development specialists after a wave of AI generated videos targeting babies and toddlers appeared across YouTube. Experts worry that this content, often cheaply made and designed only to capture attention, could influence how young children understand the real world during the most sensitive stage of brain development.

Fairplay, an advocacy group focused on how technology affects children, raised some of the strongest concerns. Rachel Franz, the group’s program director and an early childhood educator, explained that infants rely heavily on early sensory and visual cues to form ideas about truth and imagination. She warned that videos created rapidly through AI tools may shape this learning in confusing ways.

She told Bloomberg that when a child’s brain is being wired for the first time, what they see helps them understand what is real and what is not. If their early experiences are filled with distorted or low value AI content, their understanding of the world may be influenced in ways that parents do not expect.

The University of Michigan Medical School’s Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician, added that the growing trend of attention engineered videos is troubling. She explained that many of these clips are designed primarily to hold a child’s gaze rather than teach anything useful.

She said that YouTube is filled with videos that seem structured only to attract attention, often without meaningful storytelling or developmental value. While she acknowledged that not all children’s content needs to be educational, she urged parents to stay aware of the commercial motives behind some of these videos. Young viewers may be drawn in by rapid movements and bright colors, but the content may not support healthy cognitive growth.

In response to the criticism, YouTube spokesperson Nicole Bell defended the platform’s systems. She said that the company discourages creators from mass producing low quality videos and emphasized that its monetization and algorithmic policies are designed to penalize spam like content. According to Bell, the growing use of YouTube for children’s entertainment reflects the trust many parents place in the platform’s safety measures.

These worries come after a report from the American Psychological Association found that repeated exposure to fast paced content on apps like TikTok and Instagram can negatively affect the brain. While that study focused on older children and teens, it supports wider concerns about how nonstop short form media shapes developing minds.

Reference:

1. American Psychological Association. “Why Young Brains Are Especially Vulnerable to Social Media.” APA, February 3, 2022. Accessed December 5, 2025. https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2022/social-media-children-teens

(Rh/ARC/MSM)