Most Kids’ Streaming Platforms Were Never Actually Built for Kids (but this one is)

Advice and tips for parents from a top children's media leader

Jul 08, 2026

If you’re like me, when you look at the children’s media landscape today, you feel overwhelmed, maybe even anxious. There are many platforms, almost endless media choices for children and we, as parents, are tasked with managing it all for our children.

I’m not against all screen time for children, but choosing age-appropriate content that is meaningful and not just filling children’s heads with junk is a high priority. With the wide array of choices, however, it can be challenging for a parent to know what to pick for their child to watch.

I was recently re-introduced to Kidoodle.TV and the audience-first approach they take to curating media for young children (up to age 12). I had the privilege of interviewing Kidoodle.TV’s Chief Content Officer, Brenda Bisner. She offers us some great insight into the world of children’s media and how parents can help their children make safe choices.

Note: this post is not sponsored by Kidoodle.TV. I was just so impressed by their safety standards that I wanted to share it with you all ❤️

Tell me a little about yourself and how you became interested in working in children’s media.

I’ve always loved children; I think they’re usually the most interesting people in the room. I considered being a child psychologist but needed a little more of a creative outlet, so I ended up in the media. I worked in Hollywood for over 20 years and got to see all aspects of the process — writing, producing, distribution, etc.

I began with A Parent Media Co. (Kidoodle.TV’s parent company) when my daughter was 2 (now she’s 13). I was becoming more interested and concerned about children’s media. Kidoodle.TV began before YouTube Kids and this was the era when all these platforms were expanding into children’s media. I began to really look at how children’s media and advertisers were engaging children and trying to gain their attention. I started to become a real advocate for safe media for children. Safety first has always been Kidoodle.TV’s philosophy.

Parents are overwhelmed by all the media platforms available and honestly tired of having to be constantly vigilant about their children’s media use.

What do you think the role of media and technology companies is in keeping children safe while using media?

Yes, I think parents are overwhelmed and tired of having to manage all this on their own. I saw a statistic that 85% of parents experience guilt around their child’s screen time. Most media platforms were designed for maximum engagement, not built to keep kids safe. Many media companies actually make more work for parents by expecting them to do most of the monitoring of the content. In reality, more of that responsibility should fall to the platform, and that’s how we’ve set it up at Kidoodle.TV. We have created a platform that was designed for children from the start. We curate all the content ourselves; we don’t allow anything on the platform that hasn’t been reviewed and vetted by humans.

Research reports are showing that many parental control features aren’t really working to keep children safe on media platforms.

Why do many parental control features not work well and what can be done differently (from a platform perspective) to keep children safe?

Many of these parental control features fail to work because they are add-ons to what was designed as an adult platform. These companies create an adult media platform and then just add a child profile option. This means the design of the platform itself wasn’t really meant for children. Children are smart; they often figure out ways around the parental controls. In other cases, the algorithms that manage and vet the content have flaws so that inappropriate content slips into the child profile. Algorithms just don’t understand nuance the way people do. Where software sees a clean video, our human content team notices the details that actually matter from a wine bottle in the background to a subtle product placement.

I think some parents may not be aware of the difference between a media platform that has parental controls added in after the development versus one that builds in safety from the beginning.

What should parents look for in a media platform in terms of child safety features?

Well, there are really 2 types of media platforms: open and closed. On an open platform, anyone can upload anything. There are often filters added after the fact, but the content is available prior to any vetting, making it impossible to guarantee any level of safety..

In a closed platform, like Kidoodle.TV, the content is reviewed prior to it being added to the platform. We have humans reviewing every episode of every show and looking for anything that might be inappropriate for children.

So the difference that parents could look for is whether the platform was built for children from the beginning or if it was just adapted for children after the fact.

It’s also good to look for the 4 safety standards:

Content is vetted and curated by humans.
Enforced standards: Zero data-exploitation. No behavioural tracking, no algorithmic profiling. (This means your family’s viewing habits stay completely private, they don’t watch your kids’ clicks, build digital profiles on your household.)
Structured content discovery: Users find content through structured options or menus; an algorithm isn’t automatically offering them content to maximize engagement.
Continuous governance: This means the company constantly checks and updates their systems behind the scenes, ensuring your family’s data is always protected by the absolute strictest, newest privacy laws in the world.

Kidoodle.TV follows all these standards. As a result, we are the only independent platform that launched with the KidSafe+ and COPPA seal from day one. Both recognize our commitment to child-safe content and privacy standards. We’ve also received the Parent Tested Parent Approved (PTPA) seal of approval for our high-quality standards and family-friendly values.

Do you have any other advice for parents as they try to find appropriate media for their children?

Coviewing is still valuable for both children and parents. A recent survey found that 66% of parents bond with their children over screentime. . This is another way to not only keep safety top of mind, but also foster a real connection with your kids. By watching together, you can discuss the show and see how they interpreted the storyline. As technology changes and new media emerges, like AI, the co-view habit will continue to be vital in supporting children’s development of strong media literacy skills.

Two girls laugh while relaxing on a bed. — Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Comment and share your biggest struggles with children’s media and screen time.

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