Great white sharks are one of nature’s most misunderstood animals. They are painted as relentless, savage man-eaters that will tear your legs off if you so much as dip a toe in the water and are consequently to be feared and avoided as much as possible.
And while it’s certainly not a good idea to go near great white sharks or interact with them, the truth is that they’re not nearly as dangerous as people think.
Human beings are far from their preferred prey, and interactions with great whites in the wild are overwhelmingly non-violent, with the sharks generally exhibiting little more than mild curiosity toward human beings in their environment.
One of the best ways of demystifying great whites is to consume as much media on them as possible. YouTube has a ton of free great white shark videos for kids. (i.e. not featuring a great white violently tearing a seal pup to shreds).
Get your young ones started on understanding these magnificent animals sooner rather than later, then, with these epic great white shark videos for kids that focus entirely on great whites.
The Great White Sharks Of Guadalupe
This free great white shark documentary focuses on one of the world’s most well-known spots for spotting great whites – the Mexican island of Guadalupe.
The documentary leans heavily into demystifying great whites and showing them to be something other than the vicious killers they’re all too often painted as.
In doing so, we’re left with a video that pays great attention to the great whites as they are, most of the time – placid animals who do little more than calmly observe.
The documentary follows a group of freedivers who are assisting a marine biologist in tagging local great whites in order to study them.
The freedivers are seen swimming close by great whites with no aggression of any kind and even manage to inject tags into several via harpoons without provoking a hostile response.
As this is quite a long video, it’s definitely more suited for older kids (11+), but nevertheless makes for a fascinating watch.
Meet The Animals: Great White Shark
This short, sharp video with an animated shark is great for smaller children (4-5 years old) who are just being introduced to the wonderful world of the ocean.
It takes pains to ensure that the sharks are not presented in a scary way, and the cartoon shark that explains great whites is a fantastic way to grab their attention.
The video goes beyond mere cutesiness, however; the animated shark goes into great detail about great whites’ hunting habits and eating preferences, and while it doesn’t pull its punches explaining that great whites are dangerous, it does also point out that people are a much bigger threat to the shark than the shark is to us.
The video loses a few points for using stock photos of sharks that are clearly not great whites, but overall it does a great job of introducing younger kids to the great white.
The Great Whites of Guadalupe Island
You’ve not got déjà vu – this National Geographic documentary really does have a name that’s almost identical to the previous one.
The subject matter is not terribly dissimilar either; it deals with the population of great white sharks that live off the coast of Guadalupe.
Where it is different, however, is in the focus of its research. Whereas the previous video was concerned with tagging great whites in order to monitor their movements and answer questions about their migratory habits, this one is more interested in how great whites hunt.
It consequently spends a lot of time tracking divers who monitor the sharks and their behavior and features a lot of up-close footage of great whites cruising by.
As with the previous video, this is definitely suited for older kids with longer attention spans, but if they can sit through the run-time they’ll come away with some fascinating facts about great whites.
All About Sharks for Children
This children’s video doesn’t focus exclusively on great white sharks but is more of a general primer about sharks in general – what they are, what they look like, and where they’re found.
Although the video is not exclusively about great white sharks, it does have a section devoted entirely to them.
In the same vein as the previous video, it does not sugarcoat anything about great whites and admits that they’re dangerous animals that are responsible for more attacks on human beings than any other type of shark.
However, it does also balance this by explaining that human beings are not a shark’s preferred prey and that it much prefers eating turtles and other kinds of fish.
This video is accompanied by footage of sharks in their natural environment, and it’s pitched at slightly older children than the previous one (8+).
Cool Facts About Sharks: Things You Wanna Know
This vibrant and frenetic video from Nat Geo Kids makes sharks look cool and exciting. Again, it’s not focused exclusively on great white sharks, and it’s extremely short (clocking in at around two minutes), but it’s a fantastic little primer on sharks that’s very engaging and will keep even young kids interested.
The video uses a lot of live footage of sharks, and a great deal of that footage is from great white sharks themselves.
There are a lot of quick cuts and action shots of the sharks doing sharky things, so it’s extremely energetic and great fun for kids.
In terms of educational content, the video focuses briefly on what sharks are and where they’re found, but it’s primarily interested in making sharks sound, in its own words, like “superheroes”.
To that end, it focuses on their sense of smell, their speed, and the ability of some species to sense bioelectrical impulses like heartbeats.
This video isn’t as in-depth as some of the others, but for a quick, breezy introduction to sharks for kids of any age, you can’t really go wrong with this.
In Conclusion, There are Lots of ”Great” Great White Shark Videos For Kids!
Though it can be tough to find videos that are (a) exclusively focused on great white sharks and (b) aimed squarely at kids, the fact is that there are a ton of informative videos about great whites out there, and the five above are the pick of the bunch.
Head on over to YouTube, then, and get your kids started early on videos about these fascinating creatures!
Or, if you’d rather they read instead of watch, here’s a link to our handy and easy-to-read guide that covers everything you need to know about the mighty great white shark!
