Nigeria, Nov. 15 -- Anne Wood, the creator of the preschool series Teletubbies, has warned parents that many children's programmes on YouTube are "empty" and fail to support a child's imaginative development.

Her comments were made during recent discussions among children's television figures, following remarks to MPs by the children's laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who said much of the platform's content acts as "sedation".

Wood said she believed children's television had been undervalued for many years and that online platforms had weakened standards further. She argued that YouTube and similar services had "abdicated the responsibility of art" normally upheld by trained producers.

According to her, fast-paced, algorithm-driven vide...