Many YouTube-watching children have stated they prefer doing that to playing outside. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
YouTube-watching children prefer their viewing to playing outside, according to Roy Morgan’s latest study of the lives of Aussie kids.
With the social media ban on under-16s having come into effect last December, new research has just been released showing what children aged between six and 13 were watching on YouTube last year — and likely still are.
As part of its Young Australian Survey (YAS) series, pollster Roy Morgan has discovered that Aussie kids are almost all addicted to YouTube and have some distinct viewing preferences.
Since 10 December, 2025, Australia’s minimum-age restrictions require YouTube to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s from holding accounts, while allowing unrestricted access to YouTube Kids.
YouTube has expanded supervised accounts and strengthened YouTube Kids controls, but these safeguards do not extend to the use of a parent’s standard account, or a public viewing account.
Among 10-to-13-year-olds, those who watch YouTube are more likely than those who don’t watch YouTube to prefer computer games to playing outside.
They also worry more about war and terrorism.
Kids who don’t watch YouTube say they are more likely to enjoy reading and eating healthy food.
The latest Roy Morgan YAS reveals YouTube viewing is near-universal among six-to-13-year-olds, with 89 per cent of this age group, an estimated 2.5 million, watching it and with content preferences differing markedly between genders and ages.
Gaming and animation are the leading video categories, with gaming watched by 1.33 million children aged six to 13, which is 53 per cent of YouTube watchers in this age group.
That’s ahead of 930,000 (37 per cent) watching the animation category, 900,000 (36 per cent) watching comedy, and 850,000 (34 per cent) watching the animal and music categories.
Boys are the primary drivers of the gaming category (67 per cent of the boys aged six to 13 watching YouTube compared with 39 per cent of girls the same age watching YouTube).
Boys are also far more likely to watch the sports category (36 per cent compared with 17 per cent).
In contrast, girls show a strong preference over boys for categories such as animals (44 per cent of girls aged six to 13 watching YouTube compared with 25 per cent of boys the same age), music (41 per cent compared with 27 per cent), fashion (31 per cent to 5 per cent), unboxing (31 per cent to 18 per cent), DIY (25 per cent to 11 per cent), and cooking (24 per cent to 14 per cent).
Several categories have fairly even gender splits, including animation, comedy, challenges, and educational.
And while YouTube viewing is near universal for ages six to 13, it is marginally lower among kids aged six to seven (84 per cent) compared with those aged eight and over (91 per cent).
MrBeast is by far the most popular YouTube channel for six-to-13-year-olds.
Asked to nominate a single favourite channel, 15.2 per cent of them mentioned MrBeast — known for the challenges of the channel’s creator Jimmy Donaldson — with the next nine channels each receiving only about 1 per cent of mentions each.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said YouTube was used by the vast majority of Australian kids aged six to 13, but the new social media ban could be depriving many of them of their favourite channels until they turn 16.
“Australia’s world-first social-media ban for under-16-year-olds came into force in mid-December and the latest Roy Morgan data shows … an estimated 2.5 million Australians aged six to 13 who watch YouTube are potentially impacted by the ban — despite the availability of YouTube Kids for children aged under 13,” she said.
“An interesting factor to emerge from the research is how YouTube watchers aged 10-13 have significantly different views on key statements than their counterparts who don’t watch YouTube.”
These findings are part of an ongoing program of research into young Australians’ life experiences, preferences, priorities and opinions, which has been operating since the early 2000s.
The latest data collection on YouTube was gathered between April and December 2025 with a nationwide sample of 1129 young Australians aged six to 13.
