Anne Wood, the creator of the preschool series Teletubbies, has warned parents that many children’s programmes on YouTube are “empty” and fail to support a child’s imaginative development.
Her comments were made during recent discussions among children’s television figures, following remarks to MPs by the children’s laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who said much of the platform’s content acts as “sedation”.
Wood said she believed children’s television had been undervalued for many years and that online platforms had weakened standards further. She argued that YouTube and similar services had “abdicated the responsibility of art” normally upheld by trained producers.
According to her, fast-paced, algorithm-driven videos do not give children time to think or imagine. She described the format as one that “beats down your own ability to develop and think around and imagine around”.
Wood linked the decline in quality to policy changes beginning in 2003, when the Communications Act removed the requirement for commercial public service broadcasters to invest in children’s programming. She said this shift, combined with the rise of online platforms, had accelerated the loss of thoughtful content. She also noted that Teletubbies had once generated “a huge amount of money for the BBC”, a fact she felt had been forgotten.
The creator addressed past criticism of Teletubbies, which was accused of “dumbing down” when it launched in 1997. Subsequent academic research, she said, found that the programme’s use of rhyme, repetition and simplicity supported early language development. Wood said many adults “didn’t understand Teletubbies”, but the show’s design was based on observing children and giving them space to respond. She said that effective editing for young viewers requires holding shots long enough so that “the child [has] time”.
She contrasted this approach with rapid-fire shows such as CoCoMelon, which she described as a useful distraction in small doses but questioned “what it’s squeezing out” in terms of children’s development. She said many YouTube channels operated primarily on “what makes money for them”.
Former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq also said the children’s television landscape had changed significantly. She noted that while high-quality educational content still exists online, users, both adults and children, tend to choose quick, stimulating material over programmes that require more attention.
Huq added that the wider media industry had become increasingly commercial, with expectations for creators to maintain a presence on TikTok and Instagram. She said children’s television remained undervalued, receiving less recognition and lower pay.
Sonia Livingstone, director of the Centre for Children’s Digital Futures at the London School of Economics, said research shows children benefit from programming that is educational, creative or imaginative. She noted that parents often struggle to identify such content. According to her, the main problem with YouTube lies in its format: a commercially motivated algorithm able to “grab and sustain attention beyond where the child would naturally keep watching”.
Wood and others said that without renewed attention to quality, children risk losing access to material that supports creativity, language development and healthy viewing habits.
