Parents are warning that Netflix is bringing YouTube-style “brain rot” into children’s viewing, as streamers sign up viral creators to chase younger audiences.
The focus of their anger is a polarising show built from the archives of father-and-daughter YouTubers Jordan and Salish Matter, who signed a landmark deal with Netflix in February, according to Guardian Media. An exclusive original series starring the now 16-year-old Salish and her father is also due for release.
Jordan Matter began his YouTube career in 2017 as a photography vlogger, then shifted to family content after his preteen daughter, a competitive gymnast, drove viral growth to the channel in 2019 and 2020. His YouTube bio reads: “My daughter has taken over my channel!” The pair have amassed more than 42 million subscribers.
Viral video condemns ‘grey matter-destroying nonsense’
Dad Simon Hooper rails against the trend in a recent viral video. He says his household managed to remove YouTube six months ago and his children have finally adjusted, only for Netflix to start commissioning YouTubers to make “brain rot” and put it back in front of his kids.
“It’s our responsibility to ensure that we save our kids from this grey matter-destroying nonsense as they won’t do it themselves,” he says. “The strength of the addiction is too strong.” More than 3,900 comments sit under the post, most in agreement, though one dissenter argues that parenting alone settles the matter.
‘Shouty’ Netflix Kids and a whack-a-mole challenge
Michelle Yates, who has long enforced a “no YouTube” policy at home, says she noticed Netflix Kids had become “suddenly more shouty, more gamified and more focused on dares” a few months ago. Her eight-year-old son had found the Matters’ show.
Around the same time, parents in her group chat began swapping tips on blocking YouTube creators on Netflix. She also spotted promotion for YouTuber Mark Rober’s Roblox game on his Netflix CrunchLabs show, alongside the usual plugs for his CrunchLabs science kits.
“I’m thinking of cancelling the subscription because I don’t want to have to monitor every show … it’s exhausting,” she says.
The shift began with Cocomelon, which moved to Netflix in 2020, and has since expanded to Ms Rachel, Blippi, Danny Go!, the Stokes Twins and science educator Mark Rober. Their styles, educational aims and target ages differ, but all arrived with ready-made audiences and proven retention techniques. Cocomelon’s parent company is known for testing focus-group children’s retention with a device nicknamed the Distractatron.
For families, blocking content across devices has become a repetitive task carried out inside settings menus, and the pattern is echoed on Amazon Prime and Disney+.
Prof Tama Leaver, an internet studies researcher at Curtin University, says streamers will increasingly resemble one another, with advertising returning through entry-level tiers. He argues that defaults are powerful and that streaming companies could make life far simpler for parents, rather than leaving them to “read the thousand dashboards”.
Reported ‘dopamine-crash effect’
Sasha Giocondo, whose children are eight and 13, streams video on both Netflix and YouTube but has always watched the latter more closely. She describes noticing what she calls a “dopamine-crash effect” after this kind of YouTube viewing, and says she previously relied on Netflix not to produce it.
Researchers cannot yet draw firm conclusions about specific media types, and a large-scale umbrella study published last week, covering data from 64 countries, linked higher childhood screen use to lower academic achievement and language development problems. Correlational research on fast-paced media and children continues to grow.
Earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidance in line with that research, moving away from daily limits on broadly defined “screen time” and instead tying recommendations to content design types, including caution over platforms with “engagement-prolonging design” that displaces off-screen activity.
Giocondo links the blurring of social media and long-form entertainment to wider unease about the kidfluencer industry, pressure on young creators and who ultimately benefits.
In a recent interview, Jordan Matter acknowledged that history and said his daughter’s wellbeing was his priority when agreeing the Netflix deal. Last year the pair co-founded a skincare brand for teens, Sincerely Yours, sold exclusively at Sephora. Mark Rober’s move to streaming last year produced a large sales boost for CrunchLabs, a fact Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has publicised.
Parental controls ‘far from user friendly’
Hooper’s video walks viewers through blocking the Matters using Netflix parental controls and has collected more than 60,000 likes. Commenters complain they constantly block apps and channels, only to see features reappear elsewhere, with YouTube and Netflix pre-installed on most smart TVs and impossible to delete. A restricted child can turn to a games console or watch YouTube creators through the Spotify app.
Netflix declined to comment but supplied links to its parental-control instructions, which advise locking profiles with a PIN and note that children are “so smart these days”. Leaver points out that shows cannot be blocked from the TV app and that parents must use a web browser on another device.
He suggests talking with children about their media experiences may be more valuable than attempting to block everything questionable.
Children developing ‘critical literacies’
Jessica Balanzategui, an associate professor in media at RMIT University, tracks children’s streaming habits through an Australian Research Council project called Children’s Content in the Streaming Era. She says the data points to children wising up.
Research with tweens aged seven to 13 shows greater self-awareness and critical literacy about how algorithms and platforms feed them content than in 2023 work. Children often describe YouTube as needing careful handling because it is full of “dodgy” or “slop” content, or even say it is “full of lies”, she says.
That, Balanzategui adds, indicates families are developing effective strategies and holding robust conversations about YouTube at home.
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