The aims of this study were to determine the following: first, are there educationally useful videos of parents of children with autism sharing their experiences? Second, do any of the data related to videos help in identifying useful videos? And third, what do posted comments tell us? YouTube was searched for videos of parents sharing their experiences. The following parameters were collected: title, creator, URL, duration, number of viewers, likes, dislikes, comments, days on YouTube, and country. Based on agreed-upon criteria, videos were divided independently into educationally useful and non-useful categories. A critical thematic analysis of comments was conducted. A total of 180 videos were finally identified, of which 106 (59%) provided useful information, scoring 15.3 ± 0.7 (mean ± SD); 74 (41%) were determined to be not educationally useful, scoring 8.6 ± 2.1. The differences in scores were significant (p < 0.001), but there were no significant differences between the useful and non-useful groups in terms of video parameters. No correlation was found between scores and any of the videos' parameters. In conclusion, there are videos that can be used as educational resources. The videos' parameters did not differentiate between useful and non useful. Useful videos were mostly created by professional societies and by parents. The study reflects the emerging role of YouTube in sharing experiences.

Introduction:Sharing personal experiences and survival mechanisms about challenging conditions such as Autism on YouTube may be useful to other parents, educators, psychologists, and policy makers.Objectives and aims:This study aimed at analysing YouTube videos of parents sharing their experiences about Autism and text comments posted by viewers.Methods:During the period from 15 November to 15 December, 2012. YouTube was researched by three assessors for videos covering parents sharing their experiences about Autism. Only relevant videos in the English language were identified. For each video, the following information were collected: title, authors, duration, number of viewers, and total number of days on YouTube. Using criteria comprising content, technical authority and pedagogy parameters, videos were rated independently by three assessors and grouped into educationally useful and non-useful videos. A critical thematic analysis of comments posted on was conducted.Results:A total of 834 videos were screened and only 128 were found to be relevant to parents sharing their experience. Further analysis revealed that 105 (82.1%) provided useful information; scoring (mean ± SD, 15.5 ± 0.94). The other videos 23 (17.9%) were not useful educationally, scoring (11.9 ±2.87). The differences between these two categories were significant; p <0.001. An aggregate of 2393 text comments was posted to useful videos and 951 to non-useful videos.Conclusions:Despite the variability in the quality of YouTube videos, there are good videos covering parents’ experiences about Autism that can be used by other parents, publics, and professional bodies. The comments made by viewers reflect the importance of the emerging social media tools such as YouTube in sharing experiences.