YouTube Kids App Still Showing Disturbing Videos (bbc.co.uk)

YouTube says it is "very sorry" after more disturbing videos were found on the YouTube Kids app. From a report: BBC's Newsround found several videos not suitable for children, including one showing how to sharpen knives. Another had characters from children's cartoon Paw Patrol on a burning plane. YouTube has been criticised for using algorithms rather than human curators to decide what appears on YouTube Kids. In 2015, two child safety groups complained after disturbing videos were found on the YouTube Kids app. YouTube said it needed to "do more" to tackle inappropriate videos being seen by children. Newsround had arranged for five children to meet Google's Katie O'Donovan. They spoke about distressing videos they had seen on the main YouTube website and app. The videos included images of clowns with blood on them, scary advertisements and messages telling them someone was at their door.

Comments

More bubble wrap!

[sinij]

More bubble wrap! Won't somebody please think of the children?!

Re:More bubble wrap!

[AmiMoJo]

In this case the concern is probably justified. Folding Ideas covered it in a great video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Basically very young children don't see the world the way adults do, they don't process information in the same way. That's why these videos are so effective, despite being literal nonsense. They prey on the weaknesses of undeveloped minds, in a way that exploits children by feeding them a series of bizarre and kinda disturbing videos.

Terrible

[Hognoxious]

Another had characters from children's cartoon Paw Patrol on a burning plane.

That's just awful!

It should be the creators.

Having Cake and Eating It, Too

[forkfail]

YouTube, and all social media platforms, are going to have to eventually make a decision.

Do they want to be a marketplace of ideas, with all the noise, discomfort, falsehoods, unpleasant opinions, disagreement, and flat out nastiness that goes along with all the good that comes from having an open forum of ideas, viewpoints, and worldviews?

Or do they want to be a "trusted source and safe place", where content is highly vetted, viewpoints limited, and certain biases encouraged and others discouraged so that nothing unexpected or unpleasant is encountered?

It seems like they're trying to have it both ways at present, but the two goals, as far as I can tell, are mutually exclusive.

Re:Having Cake and Eating It, Too

[DontBeAMoran]

That's exactly what they're trying to do here.

Regular YouTube.
Kids YouTube.

Re:Having Cake and Eating It, Too

[forkfail]

Perhaps. But I was also considering the various pressures, internal and external, to add certain biases and remove others from the YouTube algorithm.

It seems to me that it is all part and parcel.

Re:Ban Blacksmiths

[Whorhay]

I really don't know what to say to someone that thinks sharpening a knife isn't safe video content for a kid. Hell I sharpen my kitchen knifes on wet stones in the dining room. My kids will watch for the first couple minutes then get bored and do something else.

Re:Exactly.

[110010001000]

Exactly. You need to allow Google to take money from you every month, AND allow them to track your kids. You can't expect them to police their own website!

Re:You tube video shows how to sharpen knives

[FictionPimp]

I learned how to use a knife around age 7. I also learned to shoot around then. I whittle with my grandfather and later was basicaly a prep cook at dinner time.

Depends on the age

[Comboman]

That would depend on the age of the children. Sharpening knives is not a task any responsible parent would assign to a pre-schooler; and pre-schoolers are the target audience of the YouTube Kids app. Older children can easily figure out how to get to the real YouTube and find all the cutlery-based entertainment they want.

Re:Depends on the age

[laie_techie]

That would depend on the age of the children. Sharpening knives is not a task any responsible parent would assign to a pre-schooler; and pre-schoolers are the target audience of the YouTube Kids app. Older children can easily figure out how to get to the real YouTube and find all the cutlery-based entertainment they want.

I wish I had mod points! When my boys use YouTube Kids, it's under my email address (they're too young to create their own Gmail accounts according to the ToS). There is no way for YouTube Kids to know which child is watching or their ages. As a result, the recommendations are based on both boys' viewing habits. I've actually submitted a request to Google to remedy this situation. Having a per user profile also allows them to use some sort of ratings system (such as MPAA) to filter what gets shown to whom. Even Netflix lets me indicate who is watching: myself, my wife, my older boy, or my younger boy. We all get good recommendations and I can configure the boys' profiles to filter stuff I feel is inappropriate.

I started shooting before Kindergarten. Of course, back then my dad or grandpa would be present and teach all the proper safety rules. My nephews went on deer hunts at 5 with their dad. I learned to sharpen knives in Cub Scouts under the watchful eye of the den leader. Getting my own pocket knife was a reward for passing off merit badges and showing I was mature enough to handle it.

My older boy is only 3, so I don't want him to learn gun and knife safety from a random stranger on the internet. He does help in the kitchen with adult supervision. He turns the handle when we make popcorn on the stove. He cooks his own scrambled eggs. He uses a butter knife to spread peanut butter on bread. Based on age and maturity level I don't let him use sharp knives. He has seen his older cousins shoot guns, but he hasn't yet pulled the trigger. As his parent, this is what I feel is appropriate for him. Other children mature more quickly or more slowly. Give us some ratings and let us define the filters.

Re:You tube video shows how to sharpen knives

[wardrich86]

I'm actually really relieved to see so many people calling this bit out. It's a great skill to have - I remember learning how to do it in boy scouts... and it's kind of therapeutic to watch. 10/10 would recommend.

Re:You tube video shows how to sharpen knives

[Penguinisto]

1) Rural kids still use them all the time for chores and general things here and there. Knife usage, safety, and care *used* to be part of Cub Scout and Boy Scout lore.

2) when they get dull. a sharp knife is far safer than a dull one. If you use knives to do more than spread butter on toast, you'd learn this awful quickly.

Re: It promotes independence and self-sufficiency.

[lgw]

Wow. You really have some extremist views of the left.

Replace "left" with "progressive", or more honestly "Post-Modernist", and I agree with him. This is a problem the right in the US struggles with: there's this very small, but very vocal, part of the US left that active works to destroy America, or at least what we stand for. It's far too easy to attribute that motive to the left as a whole, but that's nonsense on par with calling all Trump supporters racists.

I think an important part of healing the current cultural rift in America is to distinguish between the actual fringe and the 80-90% of Americans left and right who are just normal people, without crazy views.

Re:You tube video shows how to sharpen knives

[ShanghaiBill]

Knife usage, safety, and care *used* to be part of Cub Scout and Boy Scout lore.

Still is. My son is a scout, and just earned his "whittling" badge, which included learning how to sharpen a carving knife.

During summer camp, he also learned how to sharpen and use an ax.

Miraculously, all his fingers are intact, but other scouts may not be so lucky. Obviously, scouting needs to be banned. Maybe the BBC can work on that after Youtube is shutdown.

Re: It promotes independence and self-sufficiency.

[david_thornley]

Abolishing due process? I see that a lot with "law and order" types.

Limiting free speech? People all over the political spectrum want to limit it. They just differ in what speech to limit.

Overt retaliatory discrimination? You mean like pretending Christians are persecuted in this country, and trying to make them more equal than other religions?

There's idiots all over the political spectrum, but you only seem to see one kind. I wonder why.