Jumping into the world of technology and gaming can be an intimidating experience. Not every parent comes to the table with all the knowledge they need when their kids want to start gaming. Some don’t know what Twitch is, or are completely unaware that people could jump into their children’s Minecraft servers. That is why it is so, so important to have content creators out there that create a safe environment for not only children, but parents and families as well.
If you think about it, content creation for children is very similar to movies or television programming made for kids, or even children’s sport teams. There needs to be a way to bring our content to children that explores the big open world of technology and gaming—and even content creation itself—without diving head first into the deep end. You wouldn’t dump your kids off with HBO Max to start, you’d send them over to Netflix Kids. It’s the same thing, really.
Until recently, gaming still wasn’t widely understood by a lot of parents. My parents to this day barely understand, and I’ve made a career out of it. I had to learn somewhere, and there weren’t digital content options like YouTube, YouTube Kids, and Twitch out there to get lost in. More importantly, there weren’t a lot of places for parents to learn and dive in either.
I got the chance to speak to a content creator whose target audience is kids and families, Littlest Snail. She has recently gone viral for her Fortnite content for kids. With over 500 thousand followers and five million likes across her YouTube Channel and TikTok, Snail thinks that bringing family-friendly content to children is essential. But what is “family friendly content” to a content creator, and why choose to go the route of content for children?
“My content has no swearing in it. I try to create content that’s enjoyable for all ages. And I have heard from people that their whole family watches it together. The whole family sometimes comes to my custom streams, which is the cutest thing in the world. It’s the best.
There’s a lot of Fortnite content out there that is not family-friendly, so I like the idea of creating something that’s really accessible for everyone. My vibe and my content are silly, and I think everyone of every age can enjoy something that’s silly, so that’s why I keep it family-friendly. When I started creating content, it was all about funny things that people said to me in Fortnite, so there are a lot of funny kids in my early videos and I still create videos like that.”
As a mom, this really resonates with me. Of course, a game like Fortnite is technically rated for older children, but there really is something about it that the younger generation has taken a liking to. Silly skins and fun with friends make the game easy to jump into, but for a parent that isn’t familiar with it, a game with guns doesn’t always look like the obvious first choice.
Littlest Snail brings out the light-hearted, fun side of Fortnite through her content creation for children,
“My videos that have been going really viral lately are the Fortnite skin troll videos, like the ‘little sticky boy’ skin. I started these videos with the Naruto skin.
What I did was say everything wrong about Naruto. I called him Narato. I said he was from Dragon Ball Z, and that it was a love story. And I thought most people would watch it and think oh, that’s so silly. I didn’t expect it to trick that many people. I ran the script in the video by tons of people in my discord community and everyone said it was too obvious and that no one would fall for it.
But they were wrong because there were 25,000 comments on that video of people trying to explain who Naruto is, and that’s the way it went viral. Now because I’ve done so many of them, I think everyone knows that they’re jokes. And that they’re very silly, and it’s a silly, goofy time when you see one of those videos. It’s not serious.”
Content focusing directly on streaming games isn’t the only kind of content out there. If you’ve seen what your kids are watching on YouTube, you’ve seen plenty of toy unboxing videos, or videos using toys from Peppa Pig, Bluey and even things like NERF Guns and LEGO. There are also plenty of content creators who make videos about technology for kids too, whether that is the best tech for them, or things you as a parent should know to keep your children safe.
Content creation isn’t going anywhere any time soon. The more it makes its way into our lives, the more it will make its way into our children’s lives too, monkey-see-monkey-do, right? It’s important to have a safe place online where your children can learn and explore the same way you do. That is why content creation for children is so essential.
Consider it similar to the educational videos your children will watch in school about grammar, history, or science. Gaming and technology have a significant presence in everyday life. Learning about them, exploring them, and having a place to do so safely is paramount for our children and for any parents looking to learn.
