The algorithm doesn't care about your kids.
But I do.
I'm Dr. Carla. After 25 years at Sesame Street, PBS Kids, and Netflix, I've seen the flood of terrible content and the stress it puts on parents.
This is an experiment. Can we replace algorithm roulette with something intentional? I don't know yet. But I'm finding out.
About the Prototype
- •Ice Stream is a prototype. Expect rough edges.
- •All sessions are currently anonymous.
- •Videos play through YouTube, so ads may appear and YouTube's terms apply. (In success, we can move away from YouTube!)
- •Every video has been reviewed, but I'm one person building this in my living room, not a trust and safety team.
- •Additional features I'm exploring: daily playlists, theme filters, age filtering, build your own playlists.
- •This is an experiment. Your feedback is critical. Email me at carla@hippopolka.com or send it via the form.
Is YouTube really that bad?
Yes. For example, I watched 25 alphabet videos uploaded in a single hour on YouTube. Maybe 3 were okay. The rest? Toxic typos teaching toddlers to spell "hate" instead of "hat." Six-legged elephants. AI fever dreams. Videos designed to sedate, not educate.
And that was just one hour.
A-B-Sleazy: The brainrot in your toddler's YouTube feed
From toxic typos to semantic gaslighting. Here is just how bad the feed has become.
Read the full breakdown →What about YouTube Kids?
YouTube Kids is better than regular YouTube. It's moderated. It has parental controls. But a lot of parents still don't trust it. The algorithm still optimizes for watch time. Autoplay still pulls kids down rabbit holes. One "safe" video leads to another that's... less safe.
Ice Stream isn't trying to compete with YouTube Kids. I'm trying to answer a different question: what if the algorithm wasn't optimized for engagement but instead for learning? That's the experiment.
How do you pick content?
I review every video using a combination of AI tools and frameworks I've built from 25 years of making children's media.
I'm looking at things like:
- •Is the pacing frenetic, or does it give kids time to process?
- •Does the audio match the visuals? Are there typos? Does it teach what it claims to teach?
- •Is this actually made for a 2-year-old, or just labeled that way?
- •Is it designed to help kids learn, or just keep them watching?
Most videos don't make it through. That's the point.
About me
I'm Dr. Carla Engelbrecht. I've spent 25 years making educational media for kids at places like Sesame Street, PBS Kids, and Netflix. I have a doctorate in educational technology from Columbia. I've built games, apps, and interactive experiences designed to help little brains grow.
I'm also a mom. My daughter is 14 now, but I remember the early years. The guilt of handing over a screen. The frustration of not knowing what she was actually watching. The weird feeling when something "off" autoplayed and I couldn't explain why it bothered me.
Every day I hear from parents struggling to find good content. I keep thinking: someone should fix this.
Now I'm trying.
Ice Stream is part of Hippo Polka, my little studio where I'm exploring how AI can make children's media better instead of worse. I'm building this in public, documenting the whole experiment on Substack, and figuring it out as I go.
I don't know if a better algorithm is possible. But I have 25 years of experience, a hypothesis, and a stubborn belief that we can do better.
You can follow along in this journey through my newsletter AI Meets ABCs.