I watch YouTube so you don’t have to. Unfortunately, there are some of those YouTubers who have found the Venn diagram for every major childhood algorithm, and I must review them too.

Today, it’s Brent Rivera. Unless otherwise noted, these reviews are my opinion based on our core values and research process.

Table of Contents

Day 1: Brent Rivera

Rivera started on Vine in 2014, while a freshman in high school, quickly embracing the 6-second joke format and building a following that earned him his own hype house (content house) in Huntington Beach, California. Now in his late twenties,RIvera aims to turn his company AMP Studios and The Amp Squad into the next Disney Channel.

screenshot/video thumbnail of a girl in foreground taking off her shirt and guy hiding in her closet with a sssshhhh

Rivera’s pranks and challenges are very obviously performative and staged, but by combing through a number of the comments on his videos, many of his viewers don’t know that. Rivera is certainly not the only creator who blurs the line between performance and reality; the problem is that he never really had a line in the first place.

“ Pranks, I think by nature involve a lack of consent.”

-Licensed Mental Health Professional Lauren Mazzarese, Licensed Mental Health Counselor

Pranks are only pranks if everyone has fun. I had to address this early when we inevitably fell into algorithmic hold of PrestonPlays. A large number of his videos involve pranking his friends inside and outside of Minecraft. When our children started emulating his prankster nature, we established the idea that pranks can be fun, but not if they’re mean. You also need to keep listening to your friends to see if they like the pranks or if they want you to stop.

Mazzarese told Out Think Media about a technique she uses with her nephews when they are tickled. They say “bird” “to consent to being tickled and “elephant” when they reach their threshold — the moment that tickling becomes not fun. Mazzarese explains how those code words make the whole experience more fun:

He wouldn’t have to worry about making it clear that he didn’t like it anymore. ’cause I would just stop. And I think that that also allowed him to then really just be in the moment more: I like this tickling. I don’t like this tickling. It really does help kids then identify that threshold. They get better at it. The more they’re able to practice, the better they’re going to get. And he did. He got really good at knowing. So before he would get to that uncomfortable, he’d be like, I think I’m done tickling now. And I’m like, awesome. That was fun.

We’re talking about tickling not because it’s a running theme through Rivera’s work, but because it’s a simpler way to explain pranks and consent. Your kids might say that everyone consents in his videos because they are there and know it’s going to be on YouTube. You can ask:

I’ve had a hard time saying no to my friends when they asked me to go further on a prank–I wonder if anyone there felt weird but like they had to go on?

Yes, but I wonder if they changed the script on the girls once they got there?

Why is he putting his younger sister in such awful situations?

Wow, that would really hurt, if I thought my best friend and my date were kissing. I don’t know if I could that funny. Could you?

Take your pick with Rivera; I spouted those off from memory.

Dialogues: Reality vs Fantasy

In this Forbes conversation, Rivera speaks as himself in a way that some of the faster edited Q&As don’t show. He is more present as himself, a smart YouTube Creator and businessperson, so it’s a good example to show kids his personality a few notches down from his videos (although certainly still a level of performative). Hearing him speak of his channel as a business can help break some of the parasocial tendencies in kids:

Make it a point to show them how he’s acting for the camera/audience. This is a performance.
Ask them if their friends acted like Rivera towards them, would they enjoy it? Would they want to hang out with people who acted that over the top all the time?

There are creators who are fine to watch for a little while, just don’t overdo it. Start dialogues about pranks early and often so when they run across Rivera, they’ll see how videos centered around humiliation, no matter how willing your participants, isn’t entertaining for long.

green outthink brain with a sad face and one star rating

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I watch YouTube so you don't have to.