Ryan's World: what parents should know
Ryan Kaji was a toddler when his family started filming him opening toys. The channel now has tens of millions of subscribers and a range of merchandise on supermarket shelves. It is the most commercially successful children's channel ever made, and that is the thing to understand before putting it on.
What it is
Challenges, experiments and family games, filmed at speed and cut fast. The energy is relentless — everything is a surprise, everything is the biggest ever — and children between about four and eight tend to find it irresistible.
What is on KidsTube
Ninety-eight videos, and our selection leans towards the making-things end of the channel rather than the opening-things end. There is a homemade lava lamp, a Skittles rainbow, an egg experiment showing what happens to teeth that never get brushed, homemade sushi, rainbow ice lollies, a cake challenge against Dad, and a long run of kid-sized baking. Several of them are straightforwardly good science for a small child.
What to know
The wider channel is built on toys, and unboxing is advertising in all but name: a child who watches a lot of it will ask for a lot of things. That is not a reason to avoid it, but it is a reason to pick episodes rather than let it autoplay, and to watch some of it together. The experiments are worth repeating afterwards at the kitchen table, which is the best possible use of a video like this.
Suits about four to eight.