San Francisco, Jul 26 (IANS): At a time when YouTube is facing flak for not being careful with issues concerning children, a new study shows that videos featuring kids under 13 years gather three times more traction on the platform.

US-based Pew Research Centre assembled a list of popular YouTube channels that existed through late 2018, and it analyzed all of the videos that those channels produced during the first week of January 2019.

While only a small number of English language videos were targeted at children, they still received more views on average than other videos that were not targeted at children, The Verge reported on Thursday, citing the report.

However, according to a YouTube spokesperson, the top categories on the app do not include kids specifically. Comedy, music, sports and 'how to' remain the most popular categories.

Still, including kids in videos to increase views is a facet of YouTube that many creators have picked up on, the report said.

One of the largest family vlogging channels on YouTube -- The Ace Family -- amassed more than 16 million subscribers in around three years.

Jake Paul, a famed vlogger known for his pranks, invited a family to live in his house so he could vlog with their four-year-old-son Tydus.

As of now, YouTube's current terms of service state that its platform is not intended for children under the age of 13.

Earlier this week, YouTube came under the scanner for promoting white supremacy by letting a kids' channel show racist content by portraying "beauty" and "ugly" looks in fair and dark skin shades, and failing to remove it despite reports.

Last week, Google reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over alleged violations of children's data privacy laws on YouTube.