The algorithms that seduce our children

Hannah Kuchler:

This holiday season, a seven-year-old called Ryan could be compiling your child’s Christmas list. By piling toys into a kid-sized hillock of consumerism, this YouTube sensation has attracted 9.7 million subscribers. “Ryan ToysReview”, started by his parents when Ryan was just three and a half, enjoys one of the largest followings on YouTube, on a par with popular influencers such as Zoella. Ryan now has his own Android app and has signed a deal with Pocket.Watch, a kid’s entertainment company, to create books and merchandise.

In his most famous video, which has almost 800 million views, his mum wakes Ryan from a red car-shaped bed, merchandise from the Disney movie Cars. She presents him with a Cars-branded egg the size of a pilates ball. Emerging from under a blanket with a Cars motif, he picks up an inflatable Cars-themed mallet and breaks the egg open to reveal toys. Behind the camera, his mother whoops and commentates.

Ryan ToysReview is one of a new youthful YouTube genre — others are EvanTubeHD and Hailey’s Magical Playhouse. Ryan himself makes the most of the memes that you only know if you have a small YouTube-watcher: the “surprise egg” with a grand reveal, the bad kid/bad baby joke, or the finger family, where he pretends his fingers are people. These memes help children to discover his channel. And once they have watched one surprise egg video, YouTube’s algorithm serves up more in the “Up Next” sidebar, where “surprise egg” has more than 10 million results.

The tech industry is under scrutiny for how its algorithms manipulate adults but little attention has been paid to how algorithms seduce children, who are far more susceptible than their parents. Children often lack the self-control or even the means to change the channel.