Child development experts are warning parents that letting their infants watch AI-generated content could impact their perception of what’s real and what isn’t as they get older.
AI-generated videos are taking over social media platforms all over the internet. From TikTok to Instagram, YouTube, and even Facebook, it’s extremely common to see short clips created with tools like Google’s Nano Banana and OpenAI’s Sora showing impossible things like animals expertly jumping off diving boards or people suddenly falling through suspended glass bridges.
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It’s not just older people who are being fooled by these videos, either; experts say that, as more AI-generated content gets pushed to young children, even infants can be susceptible to artificial intelligence “slop.”
Findings collected by the Pew Research Center show that more children under 2 years old are watching YouTube than ever before, with 60% of US parents of tots in that age group saying their children are regular viewers on the app.
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In fact, one-third of these parents say their children watch YouTube content every single day, and a reported 70% of kids who use devices like tablets and phones watch videos on the platform and its YouTube Kids counterpart.
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Unsplash.com: AaronChildren’s brains are about 90% developed by 5 years old, meaning the content they consume in their early years is more important than ever.
Experts say that so much screentime, especially for AI-generated videos, could have a massive negative impact on young kids and how they perceive the world around them.
AI-generated content can impact kids’ understanding of the world
Fairplay is an advocacy group that focuses on the effects technology has on children. Its program director, Rachel Franz, is also an early childhood educator, who spoke to Bloomberg about how this trend could confuse youngsters.
“When their brains are first being wired, they’re getting an understanding of what’s the truth and what’s not,” she told the outlet. “If what’s being wired into their brains is a bunch of AI slop, it’s going to impact their understanding of the world.”
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The University of Michigan Medical School’s Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician, also weighed in on the topic, warning parents about the dangers of attention-grabbing content that doesn’t have any real value.
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“The pattern we’re seeing is YouTube videos that seem mostly engineered to get attention without necessarily having meaningful storytelling or content,” she explained. “Not everything your child watches needs to be meaningful and deeply moving or highly educational, but we want parents to be aware of this commercial motive underlying some YouTube content.”
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Unsplash.com: Kelly SikkemaA YouTube spokesperson argued that the rising number of kids watching content on its platform shows how much trust parents put in the company.
YouTube spokesperson Nicole Bell released a statement responding to these concerns, assuring parents in an email that YouTube’s algorithm and monetization strategies actively discourage mass-produced AI content aimed at kids.
“Mass-producing low-quality content is not a viable business strategy on YouTube, as our systems and monetization policies are designed to penalize this type of spam,” she wrote.
These are just the latest findings to prove that repeated short-form content can have detrimental effects on the brain after a November 2025 report from the American Psychological Association showed that consuming TikTok clips and Instagram reels literally “rots” your brain.
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