Unboxing

Kid unboxing is part of a broader phenomenon, that of unboxing videos. In particular since 2013 the most prominent subject of unboxing videos has been toys unboxing and the main topic of the first ones were the opening of surprise eggs.[9] Kids are the primary target for toys channels, and the videos are shot accordingly, with bright colours, quick cuts and a happy narration: kids unboxing videos have a loyal and global following. Kid hosts, such as the child star of Ryan's World,[10] often fall into it accidentally when their parents upload videos of them. Ryan Kaji was among the first children to start making these videos in the US in 2015,[11] when he was four years old. An early clip, in which he opened up a giant egg with more than 100 items inside, has been viewed more than a billion times. He began making videos after watching other toys review channels like EvanTubeHD [12] who uploaded his first video in 2011 when he was six. On February 15th, 2015 Youtube created YouTube Kids which is an app specifically developed to upload contents addressed only to children.

Most youtuber kids are from 5 to 10 years old. For Forbes magazine, among the top 10 videos seen on Youtube in 2018 in the US there is the channel of Ryan Kaji, whom in 2019 became top YouTube earner with $32 million USD.[13]

List updated to 20th February 2020

Videos concerning kid unboxing focus the attention on the toys the kid is unpacking. The child assembles the toys (when it is made up of different pieces) and then tries it, showing all the features, and explaining them. While the figure of the kid is essential, the presence of the adult can be active or passive. Another distinguishing element of these videos is the use of post-production elements such as soundtracks and funny effects and sounds . Moreover, the most important feature of the format is the high involvement of emotion both shown and felt by the kids. The over exaggerated feelings are the key point to engage the audience and to attract the viewers. For example, the joy of opening up a new toy for the first time, is something that people of all ages can relate to, moreover kids love watching other children play with toys. In addition, the kid unboxing videos often take the look of sponsored videos, indeed toys productors are very likely to offer free toys to kids in exchange of promotional videos.

On 4th September 2019, YouTube and Google (that is the owner of the first one) have been obliged to pay a $170 Million fine for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) law,[18][19] due to the illegal collection of personal data of kids under 13 years old, without the parental consent, in order to create targeted advertising to insert into the YouTube platform.[20] For this reason, YouTube has been obliged to introduce a new policy concerning contents addressed to kids. To this category of videos is denied the possibility of monetization, the possibility for users to use the YouTube comments section under the video or to receive notifications about it. For people engaged in content creation that have a young audience, this fact is going to damage their economic income due to the restrictions for advertisers.