YouTube Summer Camps

Overview

YouTube Summer Camps are summer technology workshops for children and teens to learn how to produce, edit and/or profit from YouTube videos.

Background

In 2014, several technology and acting camps began offering programs in which children and teens could learn how to produce and edit YouTube videos. One of the first camps, LevelUp,^[8] began in Canada with "Jeff Hughes, the founder, [who] decided to add a YouTuber camp [in 2014] after his son, then 11 struggled with developing his own YouTube Channel."^[2]

Notable Developments

In 2014, iD Tech Summer Camp began offering five different programs for kids interested in creating YouTube content.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} The camp offers the majority of these programs in over 150 locations around the world. In 2017, SocialStar Creator Camp began to offer a YouTube off-shoot of an acting camp in Los Angeles, California.^[1] On June 5th, YouTuber Colleen Ballinger announced via SocialStars YouTube challenge that she would be teaching at the camp (shown below).

On August 7th, TODAY uploaded a report about the SocialStar Camp explaining parents concern about the camp and participants ultimate objective of money and fame (shown below, left). The video gained over 2,400 views in two years. On July 5th, 2018, YouTuber Itsreallydiego and iD Tech Summer Camp go-er uploaded a video tour of the camp (shown below, right). The video gained over 1,100 views in a year.

On May 21st, 2019, The Wall Street Journal^[2] published an article about various YouTube summer camps explaining that the camps skirt around YouTubes account age restrictions by showing young children how to make videos for their parents and family while those over 13 are taught ethics and online safety.

Search Interest

External References