Who Shapes the Digital Child? YouTube, Early Learning, and Policy Gaps in Pakistan

Abstract

YouTube holds immense untapped economic and educational potential. Pakistan lacks clear policy guidelines to inform safe digital exposure during early childhood. This paper examines preschoolers’ interaction with YouTube and highlights policy gaps that expose children to unregulated content. In-depth interviews were held with 10 parents and 10 early childhood educators from Lahore, Pakistan. Findings of this study suggested that curated YouTube content facilitates improvements in early literacy, language development, and creativity. Whereas, algorithmic drift tends to expose children to overstimulating or inappropriate content that was associated by participants with attention problems, behavioural imbalance and screen dependence. Socio-economic disparities, parents' poor digital literacy, and insufficient educator training are risks compounded by the lack of national digital safety guidelines for early childhood. The results indicate the need for structured early childhood digital safety governance in Pakistan. This research calls for government attention to this concern.