ICYMI - terrifying and upsetting news about automated Youtube content for children. When you think your children are watching innocent videos on Youtube, they're actually watching knockoff Peppa Pig being tortured by a dentist. I'm so unsettled by this article that I'm sharing it widely.
See links below:
https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2
pear / 1852 posts
It's because of this that I deleted the app from our devices. She is now once again only allowed to watch youtube supervised and only once a day for a short time, no lazy Saturdays watching it whenever she feels like it
nectarine / 2243 posts
Yeah someone had told me about this a while back. It's terrifying.
I really heavily monitor the iPad now. I've gone away from YT and use amazon offline downloads and Netflix for the same. We also have local media from our computers on our devices via an app called Plex. I can totally lock down what she watches in the event I need to pop on a show while we are out or travelling.
persimmon / 1339 posts
I would love to know the motivation behind people doing this type of thing - producing these videos in the first place and then tagging/labelling them so that they end up in children's playlists - what is the end game? Traumatising and disturbing children, yes, but how would that ever be known to the people making the video? Its all just so strange and wrong. We only ever watch YouTube on the TV through an app and one of us is always watching with my son. Thank god, he doesn't like most of the cartoons that seem to be targets for this type of thing. Its all just so creepy.
honeydew / 7235 posts
WTF?!
I had deleted the YouTube app a while back, then I let my older son start watching it again. I think I'll be deleting again.
SO creepy.
pomegranate / 3127 posts
Wow. I mean, it's not news the Internet is kind of a cesspool, but good to know that this stuff slips into kids' video feeds sometimes. Definitely a good idea to keep an eye on what they're watching if they're on YouTube.
Not that it matters that much in the long run, considering our culture is sick to the core and you can only shelter kids from that for so long.
grapefruit / 4361 posts
Seems like a simple solution is to watch only through Netflix or a similar service, or, play it to the TV so that you can visually see what your kids are watching. Which, really, in the end, don't we all know that's what we should be doing? Supervising the media we allow our children to watch?
But yes, it is disturbing that there are disturbed people out there etc.
pomelo / 5084 posts
@cornucopia8: I read something similar maybe 6 months ago. It’s gross. What’s the incentive? Paid ads?? I don’t get it. Especially the ones with overly chipper adult men playing with children’s toys. Bleh.
pear / 1946 posts
Yup. A few years back DD was watching videos on YT while I was cooking dinner. When I came up to her, she was watching a video of Anna giving Elsa a c-section. WTF? After that I took YT off the iPad. Even with the kids app some creepy videos were able to be watched.
grapefruit / 4800 posts
Yeah. I stopped them going to youtube a couple years ago bc what was showing up next or in suggested videos was not cool. I can’t remember what it was but now they just want him shows from Amazon prime or Netflix. Even the regular commercials that they choose on YouTube I feel like only half the time are age appropriate
clementine / 911 posts
I deleted You Tube from my phone because my daughter knew how to open the app, and I was uncomfortable with some of the content that came up as "children's" videos. Nothing nearly as bad as what was in that article, but still stuff I didn't want her watching. Now we have the Disney Jr app instead for when I need a quick distraction on the phone.
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