Engage • Learn • Flourish: Together
Danni Dragonfly’s Strategy of Scaffolding Resilience, Brain Health, and Media Literacy for Young Children
A message from Jason Schofield, CEO of Pathways to Empower Productions
(creators of the Danni Dragonfly Show)
As creators of children’s media, where does our responsibility end?
It’s a question the Danni Dragonfly Team has been grappling with since the recent court ruling against Meta (the operator of Facebook & Instagram) and Google (the operator of YouTube). This question has led to a series of questions about our brand, ethics, and how & where we release our content.
When we started Danni Dragonfly, we were 100% sure of how we would launch our first season of episodes and a swath of educational content for young children. YouTube. As a father, I have fond memories of watching Ms. Rachel, Nat-Geo Kids, and Go Noodle videos with my children. And before I say anything else, I want to make clear that these creators have had a massive positive impact on my family, and I find no fault in the content they create. In fact, they have all helped to inspire Danni Dragonfly.
The question we are raising is about the delivery method. It is true that over the past few years, YouTube Kids has put in several guardrails for children. The big issue, in my opinion, is how devastatingly good YouTube Kids is at keeping kids watching. They do that with the endless scroll, continually feeding us new material and activating the brain's limbic system. I realize that engagement is core to their business model, enabling them to grow and provide tremendous opportunities for content distribution, but the evidence of the negative effects is becoming impossible to ignore. Pair that with various data sources showing that many times more children use regular YouTube over YouTube Kids, and the problem feels even clearer. Which raises the next question…
If Danni Dragonfly’s brand is rooted in supporting children’s brain health, but we deliver our content in an environment that potentially harms them, can we claim to offer a truly healthy experience?
Unfortunately, no. It’s not enough for us to create content that supports resilience and brain health; it has to be delivered in a healthy environment as well. We feel a responsibility to the families we serve with our content. Like Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, and so many of the great creators of today, our goal is to create healthy content that kids can learn from and enjoy. We initially thought we could do that with YouTube Kids, but we no longer believe that is true. A final question emerges…
We believe in Danni Dragonfly’s ability to teach children valuable skills and entertain them, but how can we course-correct and still grow an audience?
We stick to our morals and hope people join us. Our team has made the decision to find an alternative environment to release the Danni Dragonfly content that is made for kids. Simultaneously, we will rework our YouTube channel with a brand new co-watching strategy we are calling…
ENGAGE • LEARN • FLOURISH: Together.
Our YouTube content will be designed for parents, caregivers, and educators to watch alongside children. And the video format will follow the formula outlined below.
Videos will begin with a short pre-watching educational overview to prime the learning experience.
The central content (e.g., song, skit, how-to activity) will play.
Videos will end with a short breakdown and directions to download an activity or to engage in a game or conversation that reinforces the content in the real world.
Video descriptions will also include some scripting that adults can use to reinforce the content they have just viewed and promote media literacy habits.
When adults participate with children, it can be a very rewarding experience that builds strong bonds and helps children flourish. We want to scaffold this as much as possible for the trusted adults in children’s lives. We also want to empower our youngest viewers with basic media literacy through mindful practice of healthy habits. As we move forward, we are confident that this new strategy prioritizes brain health and resilience, just like the primary goal of Danni Dragonfly.
