Sunday, eight in the evening. The pasta is about to boil, your little one is tugging at your trousers, and you put a video on the tablet. You pick one that says "Learn Colors and Numbers" and you relax: at least it's educational.
I know what you're thinking, because we've all thought it: if they're going to watch something, they might as well learn. It's a good intention. The problem is that, according to a recent study, that good intention never reaches the screen.
The Label That Labels Nothing
In September, a research team published the study "Algorithms and ABCs" in the Journal of Children and Media. They asked 286 US families with 2-year-olds how motivated they were to use media to educate, and analysed the YouTube videos that 133 of those children watched.
They found two things worth reading slowly:
More eagerness to educate didn't mean better videos. The most motivated families put YouTube on more regularly, but the educational quality of what their children watched was not significantly better.
The word "educational" was no clue. High-quality and low-quality videos did not differ in whether they advertised something educational in the title or the channel name.
In other words, on YouTube "educational" works a bit like "natural" on a packet of biscuits: anyone can put it there.
It's not an isolated case. An analysis of 426 videos watched by children up to age 3, published in 2024, found that only 19% were age-appropriate, only 27% were slow-paced, and 48% included consumerism. And the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) cites a 2026 study finding that only around 17% of the videos analysed had solid educational value.
A word of caution before drawing too many conclusions: these are US data, with small samples and very young children. Nor do they say YouTube is the devil. They say something more useful: you can't hand the decision over to the title.
Whoever uploads the video sets the label. You set the standard.
The Five-Minute Test
The good news is that you don't need a degree in education. Just watch five minutes before giving a video or a channel the green light, and ask yourself these questions. The first three and the last one come from the AAP's recommendations; the other two, from what the studies measure:
A. Can you follow the story? If there are constant surprises and each scene has nothing to do with the last, a young child watches but doesn't understand.
B. Does the pace leave room to think? If images and sounds change at full speed, be suspicious. A good video pauses, asks and waits.
C. Does it teach something you can name? Caring for others, solving a problem, a new word, how a volcano works. If you can't say what was learned by the end, it probably wasn't much.
D. Is it selling something? Toy unboxings, surprise eggs, brands that keep popping up. A young child can't tell an advert from a programme.
E. Who's behind it? Look for an institution, a team or an identifiable person. The AAP points to alternatives "designed with young kids in mind."
F. Would you watch it with them and talk about it? Probably the best question on the list.
One more detail: the 2024 analysis suggests favouring the informational genre (videos that explain something) and avoiding gameplay videos for the youngest.
Five minutes of yours save many hours of empty video.
Where to Look: Platforms in English
It's not all about YouTube. These options are a good starting point, ordered from youngest to oldest, and for families raising kids in Spanish they double as language practice:
🟢 Sesame Street (ages 1 to 6). The official app is free and ad-free, with videos and games. It's one of the examples the AAP itself cites.
🟢 Khan Academy Kids (ages 2 to 8). Not a pure video platform but a learning app with activities. Free, with no ads or subscriptions.
🟢 PBS KIDS (preschool). Another AAP recommendation, with series such as Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. A heads-up: its app is described as limited to the United States for licensing reasons, so it may not work if you live elsewhere.
🟡 TED-Ed (for older kids). Animated lessons organised by subject and age, also on its YouTube channel. Perfect for the phase when everything starts with "but why...?".
Where to Look: Platforms in Spanish
If you're raising bilingual kids, or simply want them to hear more Spanish, these are the options we recommend to families in Spain. All of them are in Spanish:
🟢 Clan, on RTVE Play. Free, from Spain's public broadcaster, and since February with a children's portal with a parental PIN that sets the maximum age of the content. It has two sections worth knowing: Aprendemos con Clan, with educational programmes, and "Dibujos en inglés" (cartoons in English). Some content may be geo-restricted outside Spain.
🟡 Mundo Primaria (ages 3 to 12). A free educational portal in Spanish, designed for primary-school students.
🟡 Smile and Learn (ages 3 to 12). A platform of educational activities in several languages. It works by subscription, so it's worth trying first.
🟡 Happy Learning (primary school). A paid educational app, at €7.99 a month, with one free trial lesson.
And if you're looking for YouTube channels, the Spanish magazine Educación 3.0 has a list of 25 channels for preschool and primary (in Spanish). It dates from 2018, so treat it as a starting point and run the five-minute test on each one.
To check any other option, Common Sense Media's age-based reviews are a good second opinion, better than app-store stars. And if you're unsure about a specific app, in Papitek we've already covered how to choose one without getting lost (in Spanish).
A short, vetted list is worth more than an endless catalogue.
How to Set It Up at Home
Finding good videos is half the job. The other half is making sure the algorithm doesn't swap them for others the moment you turn your back:
If you use YouTube Kids, you choose. The app lets you approve content yourself: your child only sees the videos, channels and collections you've selected, and can't search for others.
Turn off autoplay. It can also be switched off in YouTube Kids. It's what turns a five-minute video into a whole afternoon.
Build a favourites list. Three or four channels you know are better than a window open to everything.
Use a fixed screen. The AAP advises a TV, a laptop or a propped-up tablet, so you can watch together, rather than on-demand access all day long.
Sit with them for a while. According to the same guidance, young children learn more from media with an adult beside them. Asking one question at the end changes everything: "What did the character do when they got it wrong?".
With babies, less is more: the AAP recommends limiting screens for children under 18 months to the occasional short, high-quality video, not counting video calls. And screens to calm a tantrum? Better not. It's fine if one day it saves dinner, but don't let it become the go-to tool.
From "It's Educational" to "We Watched It Together"
Back to Sunday at eight. The pasta is still boiling and the tablet will probably still be there, because that's real life. But you no longer need to trust the title: you have a short list, autoplay switched off and a question for dinner.
No video teaches as much as the conversation that comes after it. The screen can be a bridge, as long as someone crosses it with them.
What channel or series have you watched with your kids that you'd recommend again?
Sources
McClure, Weeks, Schaller, Woods and Barr, "Algorithms and ABCs" (Journal of Children and Media, 2026); Henderson et al., "YouTube for young children" (Frontiers in Developmental Psychology, 2024); American Academy of Pediatrics, Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health; official YouTube Kids help; each platform's website, accessed November 2026.
This is the English version of "Educativo" en el título no significa educativo, originally published in Spanish.