Engl. transl.: Orientation of 11- to 14-year-olds on YouTube – ACT ON! Short Report No. 5

The ACT ON! Short Report No. 5 "Ja, die großen Youtuber, die dürfen eigentlich machen, was sie wollen." Orientation of 11- to 14-year-olds on YouTube, addresses how 11- to 14-year-olds orientate themself on YouTube and what structural knowledge they have about the platform. It shows that the children and young people use Youtubers for their personal orientation, but do not always recognise that they also encounter dubious offers. [URL: https://act-on.jff.de/die-monitoring-studie/] [translated by the coder]

"Even though many respondents have their own YouTube account, only just under one fifth use their account to upload videos. The hope of earning money with one's own YouTube channel is one of the main motives for uploading videos. Other motivations are the ambition to create good videos, the hope of attracting attention and revenue. They know that this is possible from observing YouTube stars who run their channels professionally and who apparently "live well" from the income they generate. The adolescents are aware of platform rules, but experience them in part as non-transparent and inconsistent in their implementation. They have relatively concrete ideas about what content is allowed or should not be allowed. The age restriction of videos took up a relatively large amount of space in the young people's discussions. The fact that there is the possibility of age restriction is seen positively by many respondents. The young people observe YouTube stars closely and see through some of their strategies for attracting and retaining audiences. Basically, young people understand that Youtubers are primarily concerned to increase their profile and ultimately generate revenue. Children and young people are ambivalent about the high degree of professionalisation of prominent YouTubers. On the one hand, they appreciate high-quality videos and a high frequency of publication, but on the other hand, they criticise the dwindling authenticity and creativity of stars in the scene as well as an instrumental approach to the audience. The 11- to 14-year-olds do not generally rate the profit orientation of YouTubers negatively." (Gebel et al. 2019, 1-3) [translated by the coder]