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Self-Harm Clips Hidden in Kids' Cartoons (bbc.com)
Children's charity the NSPCC has accused YouTube of failing to tackle dangerous content on its youth channel. From a report:
YouTube Kids, dubbed as a safer, child-friendly version of the video-sharing site, has been criticised by parents for failing to remove cartoons that contain clips depicting suicide methods on its platform. The clips show a YouTuber demonstrating a suicide method. Google told the BBC it works hard to remove such content. "We have strict policies that prohibit videos which promote self-harm. We rely on both user-flagging and smart-detection technology to flag this content for our reviewers," the firm said in a statement.
"We are always working to improve our systems and to remove violat[ing] content more quickly." It is unclear how or why the clips depicting suicide methods were embedded in children's cartoons. The BBC has received no response from the YouTuber. It also asked Google, which owns YouTube, if it had spoken to him directly but did not get a reply.
My wife and I had just about removed all instances from the rokus. It's all gone now. Trust is violated. Not sure how Google gets us back (if ever)
It is unclear...why the clips depicting suicide methods were embedded in children's cartoons.
People are dicks.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
It is unclear how or why the clips depicting suicide methods were embedded in children's cartoons.
Because you don't like Youtube and want them to look bad.
The only things anyone at Alphabet/Google/YouTube cares about is money.
Until these things start going down, nothing of substance will change.
Should be important to note that this is not talking about YouTube in general but specifically a product that the company setup promising carefully curated content for children. If you're going to create a curated set of programs intentionally marketed toward children, they really should be reviewing videos before putting them on the app versus just hoping detection algorithms and self-reporting are going to catch clips spliced in. For this kind of program, once your credibility is shot, you're not going to recover anytime in the near future.
It's down the block, not across the street.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Children don't belong on the open untamed internet unsupervised, whether it's Youtube, Tindr, Grindr, Craigslist, Margaret Thatcher porn, or anything else.
There's lots of bad things out there in the world. Shielding your kids from it is largely pointless. You're better off just explaining it to them to the limits of their understanding. That way they don't develop morbid fascinations with anything.
My kid very, very briefly tried to "rebel" with music. I showed her the kinds of music me and my brother grew up with (Slayer, Gore Guts, Testament, etc) and that made it all kind of pointless right there. These days the only "rebelling" she does is trying not to turn out to be as much a loser nerd as I am.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Dear God.... Won't someone think of the children!?!?!?!?
By the way, Republican math fail... "Millennials" are no longer "children", you're thinking of "Generation Z" - Since you wanted to be a troll, troll correctly dipshit.
No Daffy Duck? Wyle E. Coyote must be shit outta luck, along with Marvin the Martian and Foghorn Leghorn. Have there ever been cartoons that didn't feature a healthy dose of self-harm from the heels?
Are Tom and Jerry kum-ba-ya buddies now?
Lots of that crap in Hollyweird. It should not be tolerated.
Corporatism != Free Market
It's basically just one long self harm series. Same thing with The Three Stooges
Ever notice just how much suicide was in the classic Warner Brothers stuff? I got a lot of it on DVD over the past few years because, hey who doesn't like that stuff, and I started to realize just how many of those clips were trimmed on TV network broadcasts in the modern day. It was just about a cartoon characters first resort in the 40's and 50's. I don't recall seeing much of that in Disney stuff from the same era, or the others, but those were more kid focused while Warner was buffer material for adults.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
YouTube has a lot of really great content. About 4% is really great, which is still A LOT of great content. Unfortunately 95% is garbage. And 1% is harmful.
YouTube can't be trusted and is banned from my house for my kids. Sorry, but kids shouldn't be allowed to watch YouTube. Especially not the Kids YouTube, which is where the real freaks congregate.
There is little indication of how prevalent such content is. Who made the original video? What were their motives?
The originating blogpost is a thinly veiled product placement for an "internet safety" product.
Trump wants to fuck his daughter and live in Moscow. It should be tolerated, but only if that inbred traitor leaves TODAY. Tomorrow, he dies in prison.
Do not be afraid. Do not get mad. Breathe deep... Relax... Mellow... Ommm... Ommm
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Self-harm clips?
Then, each and every creimette videos should obviously be removed from the platform since he harms himself and digs himself a deeper hole in every video he makes.
Seriously? Cartoon self-harm is now banned? All the Road Runner cartoons where Wiley Coyote blows himself up with Acme devices is now deemed to harm children? Suicide was a common theme in these old cartoons, and it was hilarious. It never caused any real harm.
If the repressive, uncreative 1950s, followed by the massively creative and expressive 1960s are any indication, I just hope we'll get another creative era following our current repressive one.
Are we talking like Tom & Jerry? If so this is stupid censorship.
Are we talking like Budd Dwyer suddenly in the middle of Bob the Builder? If so it's reasonable.
Like in 90% of the Youtube videos.
I found reporting on this issue like a year ago. At the time I did some investigation and could find no instance of an actual occurrence on YouTube Kids.
My feeling is that this is probably a mix of real and hoax events. That is, probably someone created these so-called bad videos then lied and said they found it on YouTube kids when in fact never existed there. So yes, the videos exist, but no not on the YT kid platform.
Anyway, I've watched probably thousands of hours of YT kids with my kids. Even branching in to more mature videos targeting teens, and still haven't come across anything that wasn't fit for kids other than all of it being a colossal advertising machine of dubious quality.
A "kids" site should be completely curated.
Sounds like YouTube is trying to have their cake and eat it too.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Self-Harm Clips Hidden in Kids' Cartoons
One such clip recommended NY kids vote for Cortez.
I saw Heavy Metal when I was 6 (we had cable) and the only thing I remember was the girl riding the bird and the way the bird sounded until I saw it years later as an adult.
It's like those bad "adult" jokes in kids movies where they go over their head.
You're right it does kind of defeat the purpose of YouTube Kids though.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
And this is Barney we're talking about.
you're calling yourself a retard in the title of your own post.
I saw HM when I was 8 and VIVIDLY remember the girl from the cab getting naked. First naked woman I ever saw was a cartoon. Lol.
When you hear the secret word, it's time to go SuperNazi! YaaaaaaayyySSyyyHHyyy88!
"OH Plea'-,'-,e won'-,'-, '-,'-,omebody ......__ .|_|_
t__|..|ink of the cHHildren!"
Let's burn the Constitution and Bill Of Rights too. They're dangerous for children.
I generally agree, but, to be pedantic, you can probably explain anything *reasonably age appropriate +/- 10% to kids under seven and 15% 7-15, or something like that (intended only as example). But there are things that can break fully formed adults. You can't expect children with no emotional toolbox to deal with some things. That is the literal but abstract meaning of torture - taking someone to a place they have no rational/emotional means of dealing with. That breaks people.
thanks for this in-depth reporting! news these days is mostly a waste of time, reading articles that say no one knows how or why anything happens and no one will comment on the record
I saw the offending clip. I agree completely that it has no place being where it was, would kiddies who watch that program be old enough or aware enough to understand what the guy was talking about?
What was the original context of that clip?
Given everything thats been going on with YouTube, Susan Wojcicki should step down. They need someone who can deal with this better and she is not it.
By 1992 many of the Looney Tunes were edited to remove 'self-harm'.
How the fuck did you stupid sheep not notice that?
Children do not need to be 'protected' from cartoons where the animated NON-PERSON get hurt.
How about less pussy-parent douchebags and more Adults?
See what happens when no one fights back when we lose some of our right to free speech?