Maybe you can't, as a corporation worth 100s of billions of dollars, put it out there as being "for kids", if they don't want to pay to hire a legion of people to deal with what they can't scale. They don't get to reap the benefits and redistribute the costs.
Use it responsibly? Are you talking about people uploading creepy videos targeted to kids, or like alcohol or something?
I'm certainly not one to say everything should be as safe as possible for kids, but there's a limit to what a parent can reasonably be expected to understand. If I set my kid up watching a blues clues clip, and look away for 30 seconds and he's seeing a clown with its arm torn off which autoplayed, I feel like I'm reasonably kinda entitled to go hey wtf google, your shit is broken and its harmed my kid.
And then, of course, not let my kid use youtube anymore.
It sounds like you are ignorant of the problem here.
YouTube throws up videos to children that look good until you get to the second of the video some psychopath has spliced into it. It’s literally not possible to safely put your kid in front of YouTube unless you have pre watched every video YouTube might potentially auto services up to your 3yo
The problem with excessive regulation is that complying with it can be extremely complicated and time consuming. If you don't have the money to pay for that, you either risk being fined or sued, you don't play.
It sets a bar that only already wealthy people can get over.
I'm gonna strawman here real quick with a metal observation:
HN: parents need to stop being helicopter parents and kids need to have independence to grow in order to be functional adults, otherwise you're a shitty parent
Also HN: parents need to know everything their child does and know what they are watching at all times, otherwise you're a shitty parent
Crazy idea - maybe no one should be operating at that volume until they can figure it out?