Kids Websites Are Boring Now
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- Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
- It's not that the kids are uncreative, we've taken away creativity. I spent hours and hours on these sites, and now some of them are so atrociously bad that I have to talk about it.
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#cartoon #disney #neopets #website #nostalgia - Фільми й анімація
Honestly pretty sad to think kids of today won’t get to experience the fun sort of websites we grew up with.
Yep. Same here. Don't even start to think of how kids tv channels are like nowadays because those too have just...given up. No longer do we see any Cartoon Network Cinema or movie day on weekends(all we get are CN movies just dropping without much warning), heavy marketing for new shows or any creative or fun ads(the toy ads of the past now replaced with ads for products and movies not intended for kids but for the parents and shallow boring soulless corporate toy ads) or any fun programming ever; I mean have you watched CN recently? All they show on tv now are mostly Teen Titans Go with some reruns of Gumball, Ben 10 2016 and Craig of the Creek which...is just really sad to think about.
It's like streaming made all companies just give up on cable as a medium for kids alltogether.
@@tibi20024 outside of the popular one (teen titans go) 2/3 of those shows are really fucken good and the 3rd one is still alright if you didn't experience the original
Hey. IM GEN ALPHA. I visited webkinz, scratch and other old websites.
Nick, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel could use their website to livestream their shows since kids aren’t watching cable anymore. Just like old times, they could keep a solid schedule of their current shows with weekly premieres. And if this were a simulcast with cable, they could replace the commercials with newly made bumpers!
@@AJ-xc4qelet this man cook
It's depressing that kids today will never experience the Lilo and Stitch sandwich stacking game
I WOULD SPEND HOURS ON THAT GAME!!!
That just unlocked a core memory for me
That was my favorite game on the Disney Channel website
The stress when you would have the sandwich practically to the top of the screen and your just avoiding everything waiting for the toast to finish the level and hoping you don't miss it.
Thanks for that ancient memory you just unlocked
Kids' websites have been replaced by UA-cam channels that cater to kids, which is a problem because a) a lot of them are morally questionable and b) watching a video is more passive than playing a game or exploring a site. It's brain rot.
Honestly ya - content farms have replaced kids game websites as a place for community and that's just sad
Its no more brain rotting than watching spongebob. You also gotta remember that like a good majority of us never actually went on these sites as kids, I know I didn't. I didn't get my own computer until I was like 12 and deeply rooted in my "cartoons are for babies" phase. Its only in like the last 7 years that kids have been getting their own phones that weren't being restricted in some way.
Don't forget about the monetise ads with questionable morale, i've seen in some country that ban gambling, having ads for gambling games, and the worse part, some of the characters who support the ads were clothed like they have religion
Gonna be fair those websites were not well moderated. Gaia had whole forums of people just looking for people to write smut with. It wasn't that kid friendly in the end and honestly was pretty hostile in places. A lot of these places were just honeypots for pedophiles.
@@tinytatotot2910 highly questionable content farms
I think one of the major downfalls of kid websites nowadays is the enormous paywalls that come with them. I know they were present back when I was a kid, but it didn't block off the majority of features like they do now.
I dunno, I was around back in the days of Pixie Hollow Online and Animal Jam and you can barely do anything aside from playing mini games on easy mode without a membership. Couldn't have more than two or three avatars, couldn’t have more than ten articles of clothing, straight-up could not buy 99% of the items on the market, and all your house was boring and had two pieces of furniture. It's been bad for the poors and those whose parents aren't willing to fork over any money.
This is exactly when I stopped playing Webkinz. I was a total webkinz “whale” as a kid, I had over 60 probably? But the second they started paywalling off sections of the site it lost all magic to me. It’s one thing to convince your parents to buy you a new plushy at a store, it’s entirely another to convince them to dump money into a website so you can play on it more when “you can already play it for free”. Idk why they think paywalling KIDS sites will work for them.
@@inkylynx2777they updated it now you can get lots more things tho some things are still for members but you can still do a lot like decorating your dens dressing up your avatar and things like that
@@inkylynx2777I mean, you aren't wrong but as a kid who's parents wouldn't fork over money for animal jam, I still managed to have a lot of fun on the free version of the game. The paywalls feel so much more obvious? I guess is the word I would use? Like at least with animal jam you could still do basically everything at a lower scale without an entire event space being behind a paywall (at least as far as I remember)
I remember the difference between the month that my parents gave me a club penguin membership for my birthday vs the rest of the time I played. More was open when I had the membership but I still loved playing without it
I miss the good old days when Internet was a fun place to explore....
Fr I rather see japanese horror websites than pay walls
I never experienced it but I miss the good old days when you can explore the neighborhood without the fear of a psycho trying to end ya, Or the sun trying to end ya, or the worries of messing up so bad you become a worldwide meme, or about the pumped up kicks to run from. Man we really did have it all rip.
There's always the the indie web
It was never the best place to just explore and have fun doing it, there were always seriously bad things to find on the internet, but of course you mean like certain websites and stuff.
me too
The reason why Websites became boring in general was because of smartphones and easier accessibility to the internet on smartphones. Overall phone culture has resulted in a sterile aesthetic with the least amount of details, especially what Apple spearheaded.
Yes, it's kinda disappointing, but that's just how it is. Things change.
Growing up is realizing that Pixies from Fairly Odd Parents were so insanely accurate to corporate CEOs. They want everything grey, square, and boring. No fun or joy.
As someone who grew up too poor to buy video games, websites with free games were so vital. Spent hours playing the sandwich game on Disney and doing puzzles badly in Poptropica. Everything costs so MUCH money now that you really feel the class divide at such a young level.
My family could afford games, but my brother and I still loved those free games because they were dope. It helped that all of our friends could play, too. I used to call my best friend and talk to her while we played the same online flash games
@@user-ud1gi6wk1umy parents were the type that refused to by my brother and I video games, so places like CoolMathGames, HootaMath, and GirlsGoGames were my world when I got the ability to go online. Free Flash Games were something that kids like Gen Alpha won't get to experience and I'm sad for them
@@user-ud1gi6wk1u Yep yep, same for me; I had an Xbox, but I still played these games a lot because plenty of others didn't have one! We could all go to the computer lab in study hall and pretend to work on essays while playing Flash games though, lol
poptropica is actually completely free now on coolmath member content is free now
TBF, Poptropica did introduce the shop around '09/'10, which as a poor child, really got on my nerves every time it popped up.
It's weird because website dedicated to kids like eg Roblox are full of adults and teenagers who bully kids for being annoying and such
This is a problem with a lot of kids media; it’s gets increasingly populated by annoying adults who isolate kids from their own media, the most abhorrent example being Bronies, and their behaviour to let their Nsfw and horror art be easily accessible to minors.
Get me wrong, cartoons should be enjoyed regardless of ages, but adults need to be more responsible if the fandom they’re in is mostly catered to kids.
Damn i cant bulky kids now
J/
@@toastysweaters5692 EXACTLY, THEY'RE APART OF THE PROBLEM THEY SO HATE.
@@toastysweaters5692 As a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan since my childhood. My parents allowed me to go on the Internet, I went to website DeviantArt searching for fan arts and I was shocked to see -18 fan arts on MLP:FiM characters. They forbade me to access to the website afterwards.
Yep. MLP is catered to kids yet some adults make it NSFW and then there's stuff like FNAF that isn't meant for kids yet a good portion of my generation were obsessed with it as kids. FNAF is literally about a serial killer while MLP is about cute pony friends that are learning how to be the best friend they can be.
I love both but I don't understand how the fandoms are willing to do inappropriate content with the characters. Like Bronies shouldn't make ponies NSFW, especially because they're basically ignoring the personalities of the characters.
And for FNAF, most of the cursed fanart comes from KIDS that were exposed to NSFW content. They don't even understand how wrong it is for two animatronics (robots) to be together because according to the lore the people who possess the robots are RELATED
Edit: I also grew up knowing about creepypastas but I stopped looking for that content the moment UA-cam decided to introduce me to the gore side of MLP fan made animations.... Smile HD (more specifically the song used from the show) still haunts me as a teenager 😅
Honestly mobile game ad can be REALLY inappropriate for children
I think one of the major downfalls of kid websites (which can also be attributed to modern gaming) nowadays; is the enormous paywalls and useless micro transactions that come with them, as well as being unfinished half the time. I know they were present back in the day, but they didn't block off the majority of features like they do now just for a few extra bucks.
...You sure _only_ modern websites have been locking stuff behind paywalls? Wait until you hear about Pixie Hollow Online and Animal Jam.
@@inkylynx2777i never spent a dime on moshi monsters and had a blast using it! Same with movie star planet
@@inkylynx2777 That was a Disney MMO, and barely anyone played those.
I think Toon Town and Pirates Online were the only exceptions to the 20-something+ MMO's they tried.
A lot of elements of modern kids websites are more for parents
I really miss old dress up games and quiz websites. There’s still some around, but they feel bogged down from data collecting and gacha mechanics. Not that it wasn’t present before, but still
Yes!! There were some great doll dress up websites where you could pick various bodies, outfit pieces, accessories, and even backgrounds. It was digital barbie, but 1000% better. Thank you for the reminder. :)
If you like quiz websites, Quotev still exists. It's basically the successor to Quizilla.
GirlsGoGames was everything
Azaleadolls and DollDivine are still great. They kind of suffered from Adobe killing off Flash, but they still have high quality dress up games without all the bs you find on other sites.
Stardoll!!
Man I feel so bad for kids nowadays :( they literally have nowhere they can go digital or IRL, unless they have well-off parents who can drive them everywhere
The lack of third spaces for younger generations is just so sad
Plus school is so sad for kids too. They have to spend so much time on schoolwork that they don't get to be kids
I don't feel bad for them because unlike back then they have television and internet access, websites, UA-cam, Hulu, Netflix, Disney Plus, and Paramount Plus, and the DIsney, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network cartoons, shows, and movies sucked back then, and the cartoons, shows, and movies that are created now suck!
@terryknight5869 all of these things are detrimental to a child's development of that's the only thing they can pass time with
My girlfriends and I went to a place here in Utah called Thanksgiving Point. They have an insect house, a dinosaur place, a farm, and just a short drive down the road a giant rose garden and an "explore and discover" place. Entering into these places cost me $120 for the day for all 3 of us, and while it was supposed to be an adult day out for us, the place was mainly geared towards kids and kid enjoyment. It was heart warming watching them try an figure stuff out, get creative, get messy and learn all without extra stuff. (There was of course gift shops and the like but they weren't terrible in the price range)
God, that sounds like a dream
Yeah, I remember going to Utah's Clark Planetarium and Natural History Museum (a history museum I did not expect to be given that mind-blowing model, but it did, and it made history) was legit mind-blowing. What's crazier, the city I was from had an interactive science museum called The Discovery Center. I went to it a lot as a kid, and I thought that place was mind-blowing, but Utah's Clark Planetarium LEGIT made my city's Discovery Center to f***ing shame. The Clark Planetarium was LEGIT the Discover Center but not only x10 times better, it also had two floors while the Discover Center had only one floor with multiple rooms.
@@lightninglily644that sounds like so much fun! I had the Discovery Cube which was cool for their little events but every once and a while we would drive to the LA Science Center (~5 stories of exploration with different spaces for all ages) or Balboa Park for free museum day and that shit was something you made a holiday as a kid
Kids programming will always be the most important programming of all. It builds up the people who can one day create for other kids. This is why they matter. Imagination is the #1 fundamental kids need. And it's not impossible, just look at PBS Kids.
We need more kids-only spaces 😭 when I was a kid I remember getting a toy and immediately seeing if they had a cool website for games and they almost always did.
Shoutout to public libraries, a lot of them have free programs for kids to craft or have storytimes. The more you support your local library the more funding they get from the government and then the more fun programs they create!
Yes libraries often have kids areas, and need to be protectted with the mess in the us, libraries can actually be kidfriendly zones. Not all but there are a fair bit that are .
Libraries absolute are a likely kidfriendly medium? And of course are under attack in the us.
I was a Wizard101 kid. It's still going!
Same here in the sense
It's still going??
but a lot of it is locked behind a paywall and a lot of players are nostalgic adults
@@mo0nflowersart I'm watching this video while playing wizard101. It's alive and well~! 😊✨
@@akechidhd How much is locked behind a pay wall ( for reference, the time I played Wizard 101 was between 2010 and 2016)?
I was a PBS kids child. There were lots of games I adored (Ruffman ftw), but you could never play those games any more.
SAAAME 😢 I miss those games
@@silversolar7181 The wild kratts game along with electric company will forever be my favorites
RUFFMAN FTW
oh my gooddd the fetch CSI games... PBS always used to keep up sites for long ended shows in the early 2010s so i experienced a lot of them vicariously. Anyone remember the really cool panwapa minisite?
The web as a whole has become so much less exploratory, just a bunch of walled gardens linking to each other and occasionally curating some news. It really is disheartening to see how even sites for kids have been decimated in the past decade.
Finally someone on youtube talks about this issue. This was a truly amazing video. Honestly kid sites nowadays got really boring, it's also sad how most of the sites dedicated to kids tv channels have became devoid of games to play besides Cartoon Network who have some...okay HTML5 games but...them also being available on an app...really takes away from that personality of CN's sites as well.
Also, I didn't realize until now how sadder and blander the US CN site is when compared to the EU and Africa CN site. I mean in EU and Africa, yeah, the site still is somewhat bland but at least it kept some of CN's colors and personality. And the site still feels welcoming with the bright colors and animated show(and game) icons. By comparison the US one seems...really cold and unwelcoming tbh and it doesn't seem like a site any kid would really want to visit.
If I do find any site or app or anything that feels properly for kids without any sort of monetization...I'll be sure to let you know in another comment, Negative Legend, because being a kid in the 2020s...really feels wrong, there's no more whimsy or imagination left for kids online. Love your videos as always, man.
"Oh man, what a bummer, the CN website is down. Shall I just do fentanyl instead?" ~ a kid
I remember Boomerang had an era where you could vote between 2 cartoons every week so that during the weekend, they would have a marathon of that cartoon
that was awsome
i was more into the basic stuff, movie star planet, etc. but the *old* little petshop site was chefs-kiss
It’s pretty sad there aren’t lots of spaces (outside or online) that are meant for kids. If there were more kid spaces, it would easier to keep them safe and happy. I got bullied a lot when I was in elementary school. The websites in the 2000s and early 2010s gave me lots of comfort and joy. I really loved the Cartoon Network games and shows.
Former Girl Scout here. Between camping and tons of arts and crafts, I learned and taught myself so much. As an adult, I'm watching pattern design tutorials (for sewing) on UA-cam. I don't think I would seek out half the content I watch without a huge creative streak and love of nature from childhood.
Kids need either a) much less screen time or b) screen time with a purpose. I would've killed for a video demonstrating how to knit correctly; I taught myself with 2 knitting needles and a crochet hook. All my stitches were backward and twisted, but everything canceled out in garter stitch (to make a Doctor Who scarf, obviously!). However, stockinette was an obvious mess with ever other row twisted, and I didn't even realize until years later...!
Man dude i miss pixie hollow😢
PIXIE HOLLOW ONLINE? :0 i remember playing that when i was like 3
I almost forgot about that one
I kinda forgot about that. Man, that was pretty fun.
I think part of the issue is the eradication of ads. These websites have no motivation to bring kids to the website.
Didn't the US government have a role in that??
@@DrawciaGleam02 technically yes. made it so websites couldnt serve targetted ads and collect data on consumers that they *know* are underage. which makes it much less lucrative.
@DrawciaGleam02 Yes. A bunch of parents whined about their kids getting targeted ads, and instead of monitoring their child better, they demanded the government take action. Which it did. And it destroyed a lot of people's careers. There's no reason making kid's content when you can't make a living off it.
One of the major ads was for vapes in candy flavors.
@@kitniec4540 I can understand complaints about that, but there's not really a big deal if kids get ads for McDonald's or Barbie dolls. Like there could have been a law about ads being child appropriate. Instead they damaged the careers of many animators and artists who don't even do content for kids, and also demotivated anyone to make content for kids.
Not to mention one of the big issues for this were parents not monitoring their children. UA-cam kids, the place kids were supposed to be, didn't do targeted ads like that to my knowledge. The issue came from kids who were either watching on their parents accounts (Which how are you supposed to control that?! Of course you'd get inappropriate ads, the algorithm is getting both kid and adult signals from the account) or lying about their ages. Both of these are faults of the parent, not the business, not the government.
As a mother of a 5 year old I hate modern kids apps; I downloaded a HUNGRY CATERPILLAR (yes based on the beloved book) game app, it has puzzles, colouring and more. But half of it is locked away behind a paywall. Its disgusting. A lot of kids apps are like that now, it’s awful cos the kids don’t understand why they can’t just play the puzzles that are greyed out in front of them and the parents feel too guilty to say no.
As for websites; a lot of kids companies now just push to the apps they have instead, and so websites are just holding platforms more than anything and it’s so sad.
It’s not just online. There are fewer and fewer places for kids, for teens, or just for anyone, in the real world, too. People constantly complain that young people don’t know how to or don’t want to communicate face to face, but where are they going to do it? We need things like arcades, malls that allow pre-teens and teens again, playgrounds, clubs, skate parks, etc. You don’t want to invite people over to your house when you’re at the age where you’re embarrassed by your family, or when your family has different beliefs than you or your friends. Libraries are closing or reducing their hours. Fast food is too expensive and they kick you out.
It's really sad.
Yeah people have sucked the fun out of life so hard. Kids cant have fun cuz they have to dedicate themselves to being what their parents want, and adults cant use their freedom to have fun the way they want, society hates fun so much. Their trying so hard to kill creativity and expression.
If you’re a parent and you’ve given your child an iPad out the womb, you’re a terrible parent. What do you remember doing when you were in your first phases of life? Why not teach them to do those things first? I didn’t get an phone until I was 10, and even then, it was a PanTech slider from AT&T.
Instead of letting your kids be nuisances to society. Teach them manners, show them the shows that you grew up on, let them play with the consoles you also grew up with. Those communities still exist, just not marketed on TV anymore.
The way back machine has a flash emulator. Some of the early flash sites that I designed are now accessible again! Part of the issue of some of the stuff not showing up is one either a missing file or, it’s calling to a network asset that just isn’t there anymore. Flash files often referenced other flash files so you might have the container but nothing that goes inside of it.
That you did WHAT NOW
@@kyupiangel90 My posts seem to keep vanishing so if you got this 3x I am sorry! I think it's because I referenced a URL. Anyhow, I designed website from 1994 onward. Probably the last flash site I worked on was a viral campaign for the NBC show Chuck - ChucksSecret which you can find in the wayback machine. It was pretty fun - Essentially you got to poke around in his laptop with a very Windows 95/Vista environment. There was even an RSS feed that gave you current news and weather. The weather is stuck on default, the time is incorrect and the RSS fee is from when the page was captured. September 11, 2008 "MySpace Will Allow Direct Uploads, But Is It Too Late?" Spoiler:" It was too late.
you can still play flash games with old firefox ports like Pale Moon too
Flashpoint also exists, archiving and regularly updating flash games and videos.
@@kyupiangel90 I don’t know I’ve tried responding four times now so this probably won’t get posted either but I used to work on flash websites. One of the last ones I did was a viral campaign for the NBC show Chuck. That was fun!
Webkinz really got bad
30:21 Animal Jam is still up! The og was changed to "classic" and hasn't changed much since I last played it, but the newer 3D Animal Jam has been getting constant updates and while I'm an adult and many players are also older, I still see kids playing it and I definitely recommend it given as I'm aware of, this is probably the only game from my childhood still up and running with no issues.
Less transactions too. I actually met British royalty on 3d AJ, though they were distantly related. Met a lot of the content creators too.
Never played the 3D version, I grew up with the classic Animal Jam, I visited it recently to see if it was still playable. I think the 3D looks awful but I truly think AJ is the closest kids will get to the 2000’s internet experience for kids.
@@bamb3928 AJ is 2010s stuff.
@@bamb3928 AJ is 2010s
I remember when Gaia Online had new avatar items in gachas, now, unless its in a yearly Convention RIG item its usually a recipient of items that already exist
I spent so many hours on Gaia role-playing and making my avatar look cool. It definitely helped me with my creative writing, and I still love writing.
@@bethharper8284 at least it helped you. I logged in earlier solely to check what this year's Convention themed items were. RIG not many new items and one was based on Black Swan from Honkai Star Rail as well as a recolor of it
They might be having trouble getting artists-- at least one (who apparently held the title of Art Lead??) has alleged a long-term lack of payment.
I feel so bad for kids these days. When most people were younger, they could go to the park, the could play these websites, they had spaces to hang out and places to connect with other kids. Nowadays, kids have no where to be, no where to connect with other children other than school. They've grown up with very little social interaction if they were covid kids, and they have none of these great websites. All they have is beauty influences, malls not built for them, video games, social media.
Kids ANYTHING is boring now. There's nothing fun, creative or ALIVE within Children's spaces.
Most of this is coppas fault. Yea, they did do some good by removing potentially harmful ads and such from kids websites, but that also made it harder for these kids websites to continue being up without being able to make money. So they just diluted the websites enough so it wouldn't cost a fortune to run the servers. It's sad but at the end of the day, all these studios want is money and since kids barely watch cartoons, how will they manage to make the kids go to their websites? There's no point of making intractable websites when kids don't even watch enough TV to learn about them
Was a Poptropica and webkinz kid, i remember how sad it made me when a kid asked me what webkinz were
It's also because things that are largely made for kids (like Nintendo games and such) are now running on nostalgia dedicated to the adults who grew up with those things. It makes them so much more money to cater to us adults than make new things for the kids, and it's also because of the shift to accepting that adults can enjoy 'childish things'. This means that things which were once colorful and free to access simply just aren't anymore, because they can simply tack on a fee or payment plan and the adults will eat it up. And the kids see this, they want to be adults too and so they pay these fees thus continuing the cycle that some adults are now trying to break from.
Thought I'd mention this point, you touched on it a bit and I think it is a huge factor as to why kid things are minimalist now. They're just trying to attract the adult audience, and to us things need to be more simple/plain than with kids (plus less money spent on these things which just gets them more money). Really wish kids had more spaces for themselves still, but certain groups/people just had to ruin it by taking advantage of kids being naive about the world.
I want to also say, I was definitely a mixed kid 😅 It was mostly Disney, but I was also on CN. Never went on the Nickelodeon website tho, I'd have eaten that up as a kid.
oh yeah there's literally no fun places for kids available
i remember like 2 years ago when i was going through my mom's old town where she grew up and she said that there was a playground on every street basically, but now it actually took us a good while to find even a single playground area
My nephew is two years old currently. I cannot even fathom what the internet will be like when he’s old enough to start accessing it. I want to provide him with fun and safe experiences online because companies just won’t do it anymore.
As a kid I was so antisocial that any kid website with multiplayer never interested me because I never understood how to interact with others. Still am honestly
Same but I'm still like that. My social anxiety is so bad, i usually can't interact with people online either
Oh God yes.
I’m regretting it.
It’s not too late
@@blueghost4769real, im rooting for us!!
Reminds me of how I can’t actually talk online casually in discord chats cuz I’m afraid I’ll somehow make myself look like a dumbass 💀
It makes me so deeply sad that these kids don’t have safe spaces anymore. I used to spend hours on Animal Jam, PBS Kids, coolmath games, Barbie’s website when they used to have a ton of games. They were safe for children and some were even focused on learning and teaching! As you said, there was an incentive to explore instead of just plopping what they want in front of them with little incentive to get there themselves. What’s sad now is kids are watching videos on social media where there’s no laws protecting them from integrated advertisements, let alone making them child appropriate. They’re not even in the way of “cartoon with characters that are toys but there’s still a plot”no, it’s very blatant and also not all of them are even kid friendly (skin care or energy drinks for example). It’s even scarier when these scoundrels are using the “sex sells” model on LITERAL KIDS to get clicks out of them cuz of their developing hormones and inherent curiosity! Nothing is sacred anymore!
I've gone back to playing Neopets as an adult, and honestly, *everyone* there is an adult from my current experience. It's nice for me, but I just wish kids these days could experience it the way it used to be.
Hi! Also playing Neopets as an adult!
How do you guys feel about The Void Within plot line
@@cartoonishidealism582
It's nice to see an all-cast of Neopian characters.
I also still play, and I don't think that there's anything wrong with it for children (besides maybe those microtransactions.) I'd like to see an increase of younger players again, but that won't happen without advertising or adults introducing their children to the website.
@@theclasscalico oh neither to be clear, though it'd be odd to be the first kids on it interacting with mostly adults
I was just lamenting the loss of kids spaces on the internet. I grew up on pixie hollow and cartoon network, as well as nintendo games. Now the servers are down, and we see so many kids trying to grow up to fast simply to exist in social media spaces not made for them.
hell kids don't even have IMVU anymore (if that's still a thing 😂)
@@hailmendoza6106 Was that ever for kids? O_o
@AwesomeYena Oh 1000% it wasn't 😂 but that didn't stop me when I was a kid
After we moved away from the rental with a satellite dish and we couldn't watch Cartoon Network (my favorite), Disney channels (my favorite was Toon Disney), and Fox Kids (we might have had Nickelodeon but I don't remember ever watching it) anymore. Do I remember spending lots of time on the American websites, playing games, learning to read English better (I learned to understand spoken English from cartoons (there is a button on remote to turn off dubs) and reading it from video games and these websites, I have next to no experience actually speaking it through 😅). So when the cartoon network website updated and had live-action, I was so upset I refused to visit it for years! I remember finally finding Hamtaro Ham-Hams Unite in 2004 and when it promoted the website, I was so proud I had found it myself. I also found the ytv website through it, and would refresh it every day for years in hopes that they'd release a new Jinx game. Did the series ever finish? Did the kid ever get home?
I'm from this area 🌍, and while I have visited much of 🌏 too, have I yet to visit 🌎 at all.
Disney Channel, Webkinz, Be-Bratz, Barbie, and Cool Math Games were my favorite websites as a kid. It sucks that websites like that don't exist anymore.
Very sad kids are often exposed to social media so early.
Online spaces for kids are not the only places going away, it's also physical spaces in real life that are also going away😢
If the kids had kid websites, they'd let us have the rest of the internet back, it'd be great. Sick of seeing youtuber afraid to say vaguely adult word in case they get demonetised because advertisers want everything to be child-safe. I miss being a kid and having Neopets, I want something like that to wall children off in their own online playspace.
Honestly I think that would be an awesome idea.
I have a theory that the reason websites have become boring is because at a very early age, parents have exposed them to the internet. I have constantly seen at least once every day parents giving their kids their phones or tablets to watch videos on to keep them occupied. It was low effort to the point that even minimal effort like pointing and clicking with a mouse more than a couple times to play games felt like too much effort.
I was a Club Penguin kid to the point I would beg my parents for a year long membership pass every Christmas. I was a Webkinz kid that had an entire collection and even kept the passcode tags in a bin. I'm honestly impressed that Roblox is still standing. Probably the openness of creation that's the pillar for that, just like Minecraft.
I was a webkinz kid. Man I miss that game. They tinkerbell game aswell!
Yeah! I was a Pixie Hollow kid too!
Li Speaks did a video about Pixie Hollow and the other Disney MMOs!
I feel this 100%
when i was younger, i would go on my mom's computer and go to all these sites. (cartoon network, cub penguin, and the like) but now, it feels like the only things left on the internet are UA-cam and other social medias. it just feels like there's hardly anywhere left
You can make good ui without it being boring
I remember playing Moshi monsters and old animal jam as a kid and the amount of time i spent on those games as a kid was so fun
Me, being an Animal Jam kid: :/
omg me too
@@Thefoop ☺❤
Man I was always one of those kids that couldn’t pay for premium which made playing a little less fun
@@rubywojcik Yeah agree...I only got it through asking my parents once or getting a trial I think
Same!
This is why it didn’t matter that there weren’t a ton of laws to protect kids online. When I was little, you mostly went to Miniclip or something when you were bored, not scroll Instagram or Twitter. And if you wanted to see clips from Disney or something you went to the channels website instead of UA-cam where there’s tons of inappropriate stuff. If 9 year olds had other means of entertaining themself then they wouldn’t be running around Sephora
I 100% agree with you, It suck’s that how much society has now changed where kids won’t be bother to anything that we grew up with especially that involves the internet to what tv production companies had giving us that was marketable target for kids. 90’s, 2000’s and early 2010’s were the definition of what it meant of being a kid whether if it’s stuff we see on tv full of life lessons, commercial/bumpers or something from web that was PEAK entertainment. Nowadays even after Covid kids are more into web series reactions like skibidi toilet, coco melon or Roblox😂. Outside of that parents don’t be bother but have their child do things they either regret on doing or just not giving a damn🤷🏾♂️.
Man, thank you for the mention of the Flash games.
Like, that was my childhood. Literally, the death of the flash games was the death of the internet as we knew it imo.
Mini clip, club penguin, poptropica, wizard101, webkinz, the Barbie website games, these were all my jam.
As a club penguin kid, i totally agree! I am a gen Zalpha, but i remember being little and playing games on Disney, CN and nickelodeon's websites. I've noticed how all of that has been going downhill and it bummed me out 🫤
I have so much nostalgia for the early 2010s versions of the Disney and Cartoon Network websites. Oh my god, this video brought back so many memories for me.
Back in the 00's, when the websites are at their prime era, games online was the go-to, now its apps, and it sucks, because when you want to go back to visit these sites they're just lost in the algorithm. Unfindable. There was this girls website where you could do make-up, modelling, and all sorts, and it was amazing! Now it's just short content and scams for kids to spend money.
Your whole rant at the end there is literally what I've been thinking about since I was in college. Its not only the websites a lot of like-- kid and older kid nonprofit programs are disappearing.... It's like we're watching the death of teen and preteen. it's like they're being forced into adult spaces. Ugh. i thought I was going crazy. glad you feel the same
I’ve been thinking about this too. I also think removing flash was such a tragedy, it made so many games unplayable and we lost so many of them in the process. It’s part of internet history that was erased basically. So many games are just lost to time.
I 1000% agree with this. A hilarious irony is this reminds me of how in Phineas and Ferb there was an episode where they got busted for the rollercoaster and as a result adults took away fun from kids to the point of literally outlawing kids. It's very exaggerated obviously but it's like.. that was in a Disney show. (The episode is Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo)
I really loved barbie and monster high original website...I miss that days❤😢
Polly pocket too! But yeah I remember watching the Barbie dreamhouse series on there and then it came to Netflix and became unwatchable
Who remembers Monkey Quest? That was my favorite... Nothing has ever compared
I remember it. It gave my computer a virus.
me and my brother used to play it :')
It's such a wild thing to see everything becoming so boring and kid-averse to the point where the things kids are playing isn't really for them. At the 4th of July family event i went to, my fiamcee's little cousins were playing "The Backrooms". Because that's what youtubers catering to kids (or just being content farms) are playing
This is also why Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel have such offputtingly large child fanbases.
@@eatatjoes6751 And i cant blame them, its fun, and has colours, and of course that would.
And that content farm is disgusting doing, ok i only saw sabersparks, but , at least do a childfriendly version to rip off :( , not freaking angel dust unfiltered.
@@marocat4749 …aaaugh, it’s so disgustingly sad.
I feel like, besides jungle gyms and the odd children's museums here and there, libraries are one of the few places left dedicated for kids to have fun and learn, yet lots of youngsters are getting ipads shoved in their faces instead of being encouraged to read with less and less kid-targeted spaces online (and even less that don't have predatory microtransactions). I wonder if PBS Kids still has a fun site, considering the channel is largely funded by donations and focused on education instead of profits? I remember having a blast with the games there as a sprout.
One of the new fun websites today is the faithful recreation of Club penguin called "Club penguin Legacy", it has unique month long events and is very active.
Unlike the sites made for profit, it is full of heart and really captures the experience and feel of our childhoods
There is also Parrot Party World, which is a new virtual world like club penguin made by original club penguin developers!
It is in a new island with new games and worlds and is also completely free
The lack of personality as time goes on is concerning. Its like they are intentionally directing kids to those brainrot content by killing these sites.
All the networks have given up. I used to spend HOURS swapping between the CN, Disney, and Nick sites and now it’s nothing but pushing kids to the channels/streaming services for revenue and not worrying about brand loyalty
I was and still am an animal jam kid ❤
I was between the generation where kid websites were still fun and appealing and when they started to become minimal. The change threw me off, but it wasn't too big of a deal. I wasn't too reactive since I thought the changes were updates to the sites and the older versions that had more to them were outdated. This was also during the time where I started going on UA-cam more than any of those sites. Now that I'm older, I think I started going on YT more since the websites became more plain and bland. I do pray for the very day kid websites start to become fun and appealing again.
So, does anyone remember that Trick Or Treat game on the old CN site? You'd go around getting candy from various characters and there were different costumes you could switch to (if you found them in the level) that all had different powers?
The TRUTH is that big companies aren’t going to start making fun sites again until it becomes trendy. If we want to make the internet fun again than independent coders have to start making sites for kids.
Companies don’t care but we do. So we have to make that change. I’m just now learning html so I don’t think I’ll be able to do it but I KNOW there are coders with a passion for this thing and you need to get out there and start.
I've been having thoughts of making a kids site. So they could have what we had, but I had no clue what the theme for it would be, nor do I have game dev knowledge!
Great video, i grew up on these websites and now as a parent i don't think kids should be on the internet really at all. there's no benefit allowing kids to be in corporate daycare. my kids wont have social media or unrestricted access to the internet.
…we’ve just destroyed it in an effort to force kids to be miniature adults.
When my parents got me a Laptop I didn't really know what to do with it yet. I watched a lot of TV so it felt natural for me to go onto the Websites of the channels i was already watching. I basically spent years on the nick site before i made the jump onto UA-cam and such, it's really sad to see what it has become.
I remember around 2010's cartoon network they had a competition at around christmas.
basically what it was is that on certain cartoons at certain scenes a little ice kind animation would appear on the side of the screen, and if i remember correctly (i never partook in the competition i just really remember it)
you had to go to their website, log in and there'd be a little fill in form where you had to say what cartoon it was, what scene and i also believe the time??? like the time slot.
and if you did that correctly you could win prizes, usually the cool toys we'd always see in ads.
i also think it was a promo for adventure time, it was ice king themed for sure.
but you don't see that much anymore which is such a pity.
Now that I think about it, in my country we used to have several kids websites, mmos and forums that were safe, fun and very nicely designed. It really kept me away from Facebook that was gaining a lot of popularity at the time and other social media that had unsafe and unwanted content. I'm so sad to discover that there aren't sites like these anymore at all.
STOP DUDE THE PLAY PLACE THING IS SO REAL AND MAKES ME SO MAD LOWKEY
The future seems to make things more dumbed down, 'stream line', 'efficient', 'intuitive' to use the corporate terms; and it's not just a kids problem. It's an all websites problem, it's a corporate problem. The internet used to be insanely customizable, to every passing individual. It wasn't only common, but outright expected for websites to allow CSS coding on a majority of their messaging boards and even offer full HTML and javascript support for profile editing. Teenagers didn't think twice about learning the basics of those skillsets to have fun in those spaces. It wasn't crazy to consider hosting and making your own websites, either. For individuals like myself that strive for those customization features, these new 'sleek' and 'easy to use' websites will never appeal to me, and they won't appeal to those who want an experience from their web browsing.
All we can do is try and help people find those spaces that still exist. And if we can't? Help them find ways to carve them out for themselves. Because they can still do that, that's the point of the internet.
This makes me sad.....
I believe companies stopped making more kid focused stuff because
A) it's annoying to maintain sure
B) instead of the internet being "new and exciting " and wanting to get as many kids hooked on it young
Now it's been around a little while and they just expect kids to know.
I didn't realize how depressing that was until now.
Man....I remember having to get help making an account for stuff back in the day too, now kids know how to make an email and stuff probably on their own
(I'm only 27 too r.i.p but the internet was still "newer" in the 2000's )
I would guess the trying to apeal to "everyone" ruined both that , adult stuff that should be allowed to dark and trusted that kids shouldnt watch it, but also kids stuff just being weird but kidfriendly weird.
Not "one size fits all" , but then that might be also why creativity is couraged less with "one size fits all"
In the past any brand that was appealing to kids had a website with a games section. I remember playing nesquick games, so even the most evil motherfuckers had something!
It's craziness how kids are pushed into either consuming mindless slop or adult spaces because they are not profitable enough. While toddlers can be protected by parents, older kids and tweens WILL be peer pressured into creating social media accounts and following the newest trends there.
I'm terrified what effects this lack of childhood will have on society.
Basically we have gone back to the Victorian Era or before in terms of kids, cuz then as soon as you could walk and talk you were expected to be mini adults
Oh, pretty much. And even for adults who just want to feel like kids again - pfft, too bad. You get a lazy, corporate approximation of that, and nothing else.
That. Not always but , online apearently
My nephew is eight and i dont think his parents have introduced him to the internet, and he only gets 30 mins of tv a day. They're determined to give him a childhood as close to theirs as they can get
Yeah I can still remember shock wave when it was relevant it was pretty cool I was one of the go-to things to do back in the 90s specially when you're young kid and our first experience and then or not they give your first taste of computer games at least it did for me
I vaguely remember Shockwave too (I started using the Internet in 2006 or 2007 so I would've been six or seven at the time)
Was an Animal Jam kid, kinda miss playing it.
Cartoon Networks website design from the early 2010s is what I grew up on, GOD I miss it! 😭
The cartoon network website games were a a highlight of my childhood and I do miss that so much
it really sucks how everything is the same now
all the unique differences from site to site are just gone
even different colors are rare to see because cyan black and white just work so much better
5:35 As a chronically online kid, that ‘09 CN website did have color backgrounds, web archive didn’t save them. I remember saving the backgrounds on my laptop at the time, have never been able to locate them since :(
You hit the nail right on the head about the world not being fun for kids. It’s because there’s this huge push to get them to grow up sooner by getting them involved in all of these activities and pile driving them with homework.
I remember wanting to be an adult so bad because I thought - cognitively - that being an adult meant that I’d have the freedom to go to Blockbuster/Hollywood Video and rent stuff with my own money and invest in stocks and drink and stuff.
29 years later and - man, I can do one of those things, and not even in that 90s party! kind of way either.
When Cartoon Network took away the account option for the website I stopped using it. Because the accounts helped save your progress or show what achievements you got on the games so you can continue trying where you left off. I used to have Numbah 4 as my icon for YEARS when the accounts were still active.
I did mostly play Webkinz and Bearville out of the Toys with a code era and ofc Skylanders when it first came out. I even had Bella Sara, remember that one??
I also LOVED hanging out on the Schoolastic website because of the Goosebumps page and its games and the I Spy/ Can You See What I See games. I desperately miss the game that was made for Dark and Scary Night.
Also Fun fact, the old website relating to The Secret Saturdays aka Cryptids are real is still up and running but you cant access stuff because of the loss of Flash
Bro Wizard101 was just THE BEST for me, and of course skylanders and Club Penguin
Shoutout to Free Realms
May it rest in peace
It was my first MMO and what made me interested in video games