So it's great as an educational tool—my daughter is not yet two and surprised both me and my wife this way: when we whipped out a pack of flashcards we had never shown her, she already knew almost all of the shapes and most of the animals, can do the alphabet in random-access order, and was even about 50/50 on what the obverse sides of the alphabet cards depicted, only failing to associate the starting sound of the word with the letter (so e.g. she guessed Frog for the image on the back of the T card, when it was a turtle).

Then there are the disturbing parts. The ad starts “this is a word...” and I skip it but she chimes in to complete it, “smore denna word” from whenever I haven't been able to skip it... and I have to say “no it's not, they're lying to you, it's not even a word.” Somehow AirBnB’s marketing idea is to imprint deep upon the brains of impressionable children? I get the ads where they basically try to interrupt her YouTube channel with some other show about Barbie or Peppa Pig, they're trying to get the baby hooked on a new YouTube channel so that they can get in on this huge industry. But then there's a lot that are just questionably targeted, “Toddlers: I need to tell you all that when I needed to start a business and it needed a website, I turned straight to whatever-the-fuck.com and got it set up in ten minutes!”

The ads aren't the only part that I find questionable of course. There are real questions about her becoming a consumer and us not really being present for a playtime when we are monitoring her watching those programs. Take away the TV and she loves to draw on any piece of paper you give her, she craves walking outdoors and even demands to climb the steep steps up to home (assisted of course), loves to be upside down or piggyback. One of her first words was “hewpfull!” and she demands to help put cans/bottles in the recycling and close doors for us and turn out her own light at bedtime.

Opportunity costs, they’ll get you every time.

They're able to target not just kids, but they know the personalities of so many people, i doubt it's very difficult for them to determine which groups are most susceptible... E.g. Addicts, gamblers, religious nuts, students, or anyone with compulsive behavior (think of anyone who talk to much or rant on forums, like Reddit, community help services, or YouTube comments.)

Watch a single video having to do with games and your labled for life. This kinda data might not be being sold but it's definitely being used to further their hold. Google can't afford to lose users. They're at the top of their game. Only place left to go is down and they'll do it themselves if not for the death grip default services or no services MO they force on people in America. Can't even setup a cell phone without having 5 to 7 hidden carrier service providers checking to see what apps u use and who you share content with, what form of communication u use and how often? So that if you start using it, especially if it's to do business or it's professional, they want to know so they can SELL it to you. Or at the very least hit u with the world wide royalty free persistent electronic License that waives your present and future human rights for Christ sake. It's bad here . Many aren't paying attention or in the mind set that nothing can be done and all is hopeless. That's how my parents act about it anyway.

It is a tremendous resource. Also later on, the educational content (e.g. Khan Academy and similar) are better than a teacher in most cases.

Mind sharing the 40-50 yo Russian language cartoons ?

Your 8-year old ski races on weekends?

Yes.

We live in Austria and it's just what kids do. In Australia, they learn to swim at a very young age, in Austria it's skiing. He's not the only one racing under-10s class!

There's another comment here taking the piss (with the yachting comment), and I too used to have certain pre-conceived ideas about skiing. Sure, if you go to St. Anton and Kitzbuehel, there's a certain vibe. However, at my local slopes it's completely different. It's just regular people going skiing with their families.

In Austria of course they have their football (soccer) idols, but apart from that it's all about snow sports.

Swimming lessons in Australia are very common. General pool safety/ability but also beach/surf confidence. In summer, there are beach swimming programs that are very well attended. Our 4-10 yos did a week-long beach program last month, learning how to deal with waves, signal for help, swim to safety while clothed, etc. Think it was the second or third year running for the older two, who are quite competent in waves and had done multiple years of pool swimming lessons.

Learning to swim young can be done anywhere though that has a public pool.

Yes, that's true and such pools are ubiquitous in Australia. The town I grew up in, 200km from the ocean, population 4,500, had a full Olympic size 50m pool. It was just one of the local amenities. We had school swimming carnivals where everyone was expected to swim in at least one 50m race.

I don't think the same access to pools is true in other more temperate climates, at least not from my experience living in Europe.

Skiing for kids in Austria isn't quite at the same level, depending on where you live perhaps, but my son is off to a school ski race event later this month, with thirteen of his classmates. It's an officially sanctioned school event.

Lived in UK and Australia and both have a decent amount of pools and kids programs. In the UK state high schools often had pools even in not so great areas.

Obviously yeah skiing is insanely more expensive to operate and there would be less of it due to geography.

What limits swimming in other countries has to be culture not the availability of concrete, water and chlorine production needed to allow people to swim anywhere.

It's quite common in Europe for communities that live near the ski areas or have convenient public transport to them. You see lots of kids racing in the Pyrenees. Ski areas here often offer discounted season passes for kids and local residents. It's a relatively accessible sport if you live near by. If you don't then it can be expensive (lodging, ski passes and equipment). Japan is similar. It has a large number of ski resorts and they often have low cost lodging nearby. Kids from the local communities learn to ski young.

Winter sports are like any other - kids join local clubs at early age and compete within their age category. No different then ballet, dancing, soccer, American football, basketball.

It's very normal in Northern climates for kids to ski.

Only in winter, summer is for yacht racing.