Tom Scott

YouTube Channel Review

Humans have made a lot of interesting things during our time on this Earth—some good things, some bad, some up for debate on their relative worth. Many of these creations still might even exist in our world today—and you may not have even heard of them! And on Tom Scott, you’ll get to see a lot of them.

Scott takes his viewers to a plethora of interesting sites and sights around the world—from a “float-through McDonalds” to a road the U.S.-Canada border divides in half. But there are also non-tangible things that humans have made that need some explaining, too, such as language, copyright law and how computer systems process information. Tom will teach us about those things, too.

POSITIVE CONTENT

Scott teaches his viewers about many fascinating places, concepts and interesting ideas. With titles such as “Why build a diving board twice the Olympic height?”, “I visited the Yellowstone Zone of Death” and “Why the US Army electrifies this water,” people browsing the channel will be sure to find something interesting to watch—and learn something new from the typically 5-to-10-minute videos.

Scott tries to research everything so that no mistakes are made in his videos, but when issues, changes or errors do pop up, he returns to the video to correct it.

CONTENT CONCERNS

The majority of concerns center on Scott’s occasional use of swears, though these are also light. We very sparingly hear “a–” or “d–n.” One video centered around language discusses “expletive infixation,” where people insert swear words into the middle of other words for emphasis, and Scott uses the British swear “bloody” as his example (and he encourages viewers to try it out). In that video, we also see an instance of “g-dd–n,” and we also heard one instance of “d–k” in another. In a video called “Why You Swear in Anglo-Saxon and Order Fancy Food in French: Registers,” Scott shows an Old English quote which contains a word that would eventually become the s-word. In “Ten Illegal Things To Do In London,” we hear a cut-off f-word, watch someone deface money and see an intoxicated man.

In another video on language, Scott quotes “Thou shalt not kill,” and in the citation, it reads “God (disputed).” Additionally, one video on using “they” as a singular pronoun due to the awkwardness of gendered language says that “Some people are they. Get over it.” A trans woman makes an appearance on a money-themed gameshow that Scott hosts.

CHANNEL SUMMARY

Tom Scott provides a generally family-friendly educational experience about the many interesting things around the world, and there’s scarcely a video on the channel that won’t teach you at least one new thing. However, the occasional mild language might cause some viewers to consider whether they want their child watching.