YouTube Kids: The Effect of YouTube on Children's Racial Beliefs

To what extent might YouTube influence children's beliefs about racial outgroups? Though it is well established that children can learn about group dynamics within their racial world from patterns in their daily environments, the majority of research in this domain has focused on in-person environmental dynamics. The current study examines whether YouTube exposes children to negative outgroup behaviors, potentially affecting their beliefs. In an online questionnaire, dyads of parents and 8-13 year-old children (N = 200 dyads) described children's daily YouTube usage. We found that time spent on YouTube each week was not associated with increased perception of negative racial patterns on YouTube (B = 0.00, p = .397), nor was time spent on YouTube associated with an increase in prejudice against racial outgroups (B = 0.00, p = .376). However, male participants (t = -2.45, p = .029) and participants with higher parasociality scores (B = 0.81, SE = 0.08, p < .001) displayed greater prejudice. These findings suggest that prejudice is predicted by more than just online exposure to negative racial patterns; children's identities and preferences may play a larger role.