Last year Chris Gonzales’ 8-year-old son was browsing YouTube when he saw a video that disturbed him. It was a video about parents hating their kids and the kids’ faces were smudged with blood. Immediately, Gonzales signed him up for a YouTube Kids account, thinking that would be okay. “The first video recommended was what it’s like being a non-binary child. … I looked through the rest of the videos and they were worse.” Gonzales wondered why there couldn’t just be good things online. “Why are we so far from where we used to be [in] the days of Mr. Rogers?”

Gonzales never thought he’d leave his career as an FBI agent, but he knew he had to do something. He realized that the biggest threat to kids was the culture that was trying to steal their minds right out from underneath parents. “And so I said, ‘Well, I guess it’s me.'”

‘I Can Do All Things Through Christ’

After a lot of prayer and soul-searching, Gonzales felt called to create a safe place for kids ages 8-18 to browse online. He didn’t have a background in videography, online content production, establishing multilevel platform servers or app creation, but he knew he could do it. “You know, Philippians 4:13 says we [can] do all things through Christ who strengthens us. So, we are trying to figure this out because we have to.”

A Different Worldview

GoodTube Kids was founded as a Christian company. The company’s foundational verse is Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” (NKJV) The company holds biblical values, like the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman for life, that there is objective right and wrong, and that “boys are boys and girls are girls.” Gonzales isn’t pushing these beliefs on kids. “What we’re doing is we’re just doing tried and true principles that have been what we’ve taught for years.”

Gonzales said that GoodTube Kids’ worldview is fundamentally different than what kids are currently getting from Disney or Nickelodeon. “I don’t believe that showing kids men in drag is appropriate. [I]t’s not something I want my son to see or want other children to see. And so, at the very foundation of what we’re doing our worldview is different.”

GoodTube Kids’ Content

GoodTube Kids gets content in a few ways. The first is through trusted partners like Cross-Examined, Reasonable Faith or Christian comedians. “We have seen their content and know that their content will align with what we’re trying to do.” Second, GoodTube Kids will create their own content or ask others to make content for them. Third, subscribers to GoodTube Kids can submit content. “They’re going to have to agree to terms and conditions about what they’re going to submit, they and their parents.”

While the majority of the videos are for kids, GoodTube Kids has resources for parents, too, like a free newsletter with updates to relevant topics for families as well as books reviews and the like. Gonzales is also developing a web page called “Resources for Parents.” “So a parent can go and they can search for companies and resources and ministries and government agencies that we think would be helpful.”

While Gonzales says it’s difficult to protect kids from everything they may see online, GoodTube Kids is a good start. If something slips by them, they will immediately address it and remove the offensive material. Gonzales knows that he has a great responsibility to provide clean content for kids. “As the founder, I know that everything I do here, everything I teach these kids, I’m going to have to answer for one day. And I want this to be as good a network for my own son and his grandchildren as it is for your children.”

For more information about a GoodTube Kids subscription and costs, go to goodtubekids.com. 

Nancy Flory, Ph.D., is a senior editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.