I find starting a conversation with the kid when the opportunity presents itself organically and listen to what they think about the content / subject matter and bringing different perspectives to the subject can teach them critically thinking about what they're hearing.

The same goes for young adult books with questionable relationship examples. Making it a conversation, hearing what they think about certain aspects and bringing different perspectives to the subject works better than taking a stance against something they love.

We all love flawed stuff, we love them while (hopefully) separating wrongs from rights in our minds because we have some degree of critical thinking. We just need to teach/guide the kids the same way. It's ok to like something while still being able to point out the wrongs of that thing.

This situation you describe is legitimately one of my greatest fears as a parent. I have little useful advice to give; all I can really say is "good luck" and to research terms like "elsagate," "gamergate" and "PewDiePipeline" to see what advice actual experts (psychologists etc.) have about deprogramming kids from them.

I was raised allowed to moderate my own content because I was trusted to be intelligent and wise enough to critically select what I watched or read and learn from the mistakes I made if I consumed something negatively influential.

I was raised allowed to moderate my own content because my computer-illiterate parents had absolutely no clue what the Internet was capable of exposing me to. Frankly, it was only dumb luck on their part that I happened to have the right personality and skills not to succumb to inceldom, the Alt-Right, or some other kind of radicalization.

(Even more frankly, maybe I did succumb to radicalization: I am, after all, an urbanist leftist Linux user (among other weird things) who likes to hang out on Lemmy, LOL!)

Maybe try to show them videos you deem good and/or entertaining yourself. They might even prefer them over the videos they currently like, thus reducing the time spent watching "nefarious" content.

If they suspect that you want to stir them away, perhaps try manipulating the youtube algorithm by playing a lot of "good" or neutral content and engaging with them using their account so that different videos pop up in their daily feed lessening the echo chamber effect.

Ps: This is the opinion of someone who has no experience in parenting

It'd probably cause a lot of resentment, but I believe that cutting the cord is necessary, they could be on the path of far right radicalization pipe line, or far left pipe line. You tube algorithm always push more extreme videos. I've got a 4yo kid, and I dred the possiblity of him getting hooked.

How you interact with them is the key to 90% of what your child learns from you. You're already participating in their viewing. Use this as a stepping stone for dialogue regarding plausibility, and demonstrating critical thinking.

"Do you agree with that influencer? Why or why not?"

"What are the influencers motivations?" Dazzle them with possibilities they had not considered too.

"If I told you I've been to space would you believe me? But I'm your parent! Why is my claim beyond belief?"

"Can you verify what that person is telling you through reliable means? This is how I would do that".

... and so on. Just do more of what you're doing and up the investigation portion IMO. Don't be afraid to learn something yourself while they witness it. Just be careful to avoid arguments as they're getting to that age...

I should clarify that I am not a parent nor a child psychologist nor anything else to that effect, I am only speaking from my own experience of being parented—

I remember being around that age and I had a similar problem of just watching absolute political slop on YouTube. My access to content was never restricted nor closely monitored, but when my mom caught me watching some reactionary bozo on occasion, she would just call it what it was — and then all of a sudden I found myself a lot less interested in that type of content. When she or others would point out the problems with what I was watching or the messages I got from the content, that showed me the "smoke and mirrors" of it. And insofar as I engaged in that content out of a desire to appear precocious... Well, realizing that I was manifesting the exact phenomenon that C.S. Lewis described in that famous quote of his about the "fear of childishness", and that my attempt to convince myself that I was more grown-up than I really was was collapsing in front of me, I just felt ashamed — but very specifically not humiliated.

So I think the best thing you can do is to understand what role these streamers really play for the child. Because it's probably not all wanting to be popular, it's probably not all wanting to appear precocious, and it's probably not all wanting to build an identity; just as it's probably not all noticing the ways in which they're genuinely getting screwed over, and acting on genuine frustrations, genuinely trying to understand why this is and what to do about it even with the limitations of their own lived experience; nor is it probably all learning about the world's issues and wanting to do their best to be a good person even about things that don't very obviously affect them personally.

Rather the child's enjoyment is in all likelihood probably some sort of blend of these or perhaps other things. If you can determine the composition of the blend, you will know where to strike to most effectively reveal the "smoke and mirrors", and make the child feel that sort of productive shame that causes actual self-reflection. You should aim to be like the elderly Hungarian-born immigrant saying "And that makes a difference, doesn't it?", if you're familiar with that old propaganda film: shame is a negative emotion that makes one want to avoid the cause of the feeling, and it should be your aim to make the child identify the cause of the shame to be the shameful thing rather than the one shaming.

I trust that you're on good terms with your child and only have good intentions, so I think that you will succeed. And of course I should reiterate that my own perspective is limited, and what worked for myself might not work for everyone.

I'd be interested in examples of what he watchs, it's hard to know how to respond otherwise.

I think you're probably worrying too much though, I watch all sorts of junk on YouTube largely because I enjoy finding out how other people think more than it constanrly changing my opinion - sure he's young and doesn't have the same level of awareness as an adult but also nothing in his life will actually matter for about 5 more years so a few bad opinions aren't the end of the world.

When he says 'I don't know' maybe you should believe that's how he really feels, feed into it a bit and as painful as this might be for you admit that you don't know either - life is full of confusing shit and honesty half the stuff I see I don't even know how I feel about it or if it's true, sane, or sensible. I'm sure he knows loads of interesting things going on in the world that you're totally unaware of so let him tell you about it, be interested and accepting while in a non-dogmatic way rasising doubts where appropriate or simply tell a story from your own life that explains your doubts - not like 'I'm old and know better' but more friendly and demonstrating it's normal to not know who to trust or what's valid.

Positive reinforcement of doubt and distrust is important, demonstrate that you understand he's learning about the world and its absurdities and complexities, laugh about some of it WITH him rather than making him feel like you're saying 'the stuff you watch is dumb and you're dumb for watching it' because understanding others is FAR more important in life than knowing the truth about obscure subjects, hard pill to swallow maybe but it's true.

Your seven points you worry about are well and good but media doesn't do that, politicians don't do that, corporations don't do that, life partners and lovers don't do that, friends don't do that, I bet YOU don't do that... To live in this world we've got to learn how to take the important bits and leave the rest, we've got to learn why people do the things they do and that's only possible with a big messy database in our heads of all the different types of people out there.

It sounds from the way you speak like you've given him a good grounding in logical, sensible, and scientifically literate discourse which is great but now his brain yearns to understand more of the world - why is everything so crazy and weird? why do people who seem nice sometimes do crazy and hurtful things? Why does this girl say such odd things, does she like me or hate me? These are questions you can only start to answer by understanding people and things you don't believe in.

I listened to endless craziness like Alex Jones, 5Live, loveline, all sorts of brain rot shit - never once did I think Adam Carolla was anything but [string of words now forbidden] though he was funny, it was fun to listen to and entertaining, I learnt a lot about the world from callers and even Adam though he certainly never did a single one of your seven virtues.

Yes maybe the entertainment is more important than the content of their arguments, being able to know the truth is useful but being able to entertain friends, girlfriends, bosses and authority figures is what can turn a hard life into a great and easy one.

Have you tried talking to them?

You will never be able to block them from viewing stuff they want to see. They'll either do it through their friends devices, on other WiFi connections, or at school where networks are hilariously open or easy to bypass.

The best thing, and frankly the only thing you can do as a parent is to be engaged with them. Make them think critically on subjects, and if something they parrot back is nonsense, call them out on it. Cast that seed of doubt in their mind. If they choose to continue to watch stupid shit, that's their choice, and it's only worth stepping in if it's actively dangerous.

Very tough situation, wish I had something helpful to share, but any chance you can nudge them towards well sourced, largely promoting critical thinking, but also entertaining videos?

https://youtu.be/rE3j_RHkqJc?si=4TIAOEJDIjPijGmP

https://youtu.be/m81q-ZkfBm0?si=we-Zqq4w4xXlLJrd

https://youtu.be/wmVkJvieaOA?si=XmKdb_fAW_sMGlkD

https://youtu.be/wfYbgdo8e-8?si=zMl9IAfvZeYhsnXo

https://youtu.be/C8dfiDeJeDU?si=TSgDaYdZr9j78xzZ

Maybe this: https://tournesol.app/ could be of some help ?