6 ms·

Toy Channels on YouTube are Ruining Society

33 points by markdown 10y ago

hydrogen18 10y ago
While interesting, I can't see how there is a difference between this and cartoons.
- Neliquat 10y ago
  Funny you mention that. Growing up, I remember watching the Transformers cartoon, and begging for the toys. Years later, I watched a retrospective program on the series, where they noted that The first episode was just a long form advert, and was so popular, they ordered a series, of toy commercials. So nothing is totally new here, except that the average youtuber seems to have no ethicical qualms about pushing any product, while networks did, and still do, qualify their advertisers.
  - hydrogen18 10y ago
    Now that we're grown up, the transformers "movies" are really commercials for General Motors products. I seem to recall one movie even having just a dozen or so frames of the new Corvette before it was publicly available.
- Grue3 10y ago
  Cartoons are way more expensive to produce than these videos.
- joenot443 10y ago
  Have you actually watched any of the videos in question? A lot of them are blatantly, and bizzarely, sexualized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F4WrhzX-ZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F4WrhzX-ZU It isn't so much the obvious product placement and toy-pushing that's disturbing to me, it's the actual content. There isn't really much YouTube can do about it, it's more so the responsibility of the parents to limit their kids free-reign internet consumption.
- yellowapple 10y ago
  Having watched the video in question: the difference is that these videos are crossing into softcore porn, which usually ain't the case in cartoons (at least the ones aimed at children).
tdkl 10y ago
Well it's easiest to addict them when they're young and clueless.
petercooper 10y ago
How easy it is to start to sound like our parents' generation eventually! Video games were ruining society once and, before that, discotheques, TVs and rock music. I have two young children who enjoy YouTube more than TV and while they do watch a lot of weird (kids') channels, they've learnt a lot too and I haven't seen it play out in any negative way so far. At the least, they've seen people with many more opinions and of many more cultures and races than I had at their age - a good thing, to me. Let's keep an eye on this and continue to be observant, caring parents who don't give up responsibilities to an iPad, but at the same time let's not be the parents who say the Smashing Pumpkins' lyrics are scrambling your brains when they aren't.
- joenot443 10y ago
  While I agree with the premise, I'd have to say there's quite a bit more artistic value to Smashing Pumpkins or Marilyn Manson, or whatever other 'satanic' artists our parents hated than these strange, mindless kids YouTube videos.
  - fwn 10y ago
    Some content is better, some worse. Arguing with the good content of our own generation against the bad content of the next generation is probably very typical for all of us.
  - CaptSpify 10y ago
    I would argue that artistic value is highly subjective. People used to argue that jazz was just random noise and nonsense for a long time.
    - thedudemabry 10y ago
      True, and I don't want to jump the overprotective-parent gun here, but what I think is worth keeping an eye on with these videos is how they are not an underrepresented group expressing their creativity, but rather a very well represented group targeting a vulnerable audience. There are no easy lines to draw, but I think it does bear further scrutiny and discussion (especially from folks used to defending forms of media from demonization.)
astalwick 10y ago
We removed the youtube app from our iPad, because our 4 year old was starting to get too deep into these. There's a lot of great stuff on Youtube for kids (genuinely, whole-heartedly, terrific stuff; I was amazed), but there's also a lot of very, very weird and sexualized and violent content. Targeted at young children. And unfortunately, the 'recommended' sidebar is a little bit too eager in sending kids down those paths. I see some comments comparing it to 'video games ruining society' and 'violent cartoons'. No, it is not at all the same thing. I have no problem handing the ipad to my son and allowing him to select a show on Netflix. Youtube crossed my 'wtf creepy' threshold a few too many times.
- nonsince 10y ago
  The difference is between art which is seen as "too adult" being said to ruin society (like movies/games), which generally aren't that bad, and content which is specifically targeted at exploiting children's mental weaknesses for monetary gain. I don't think they're "ruining society", but it's definitely gross and something we should fight if at all possible
- Fricken 10y ago
  It's disturbing to see our id reflected back at us in the behavior of our children, but I remember playing with action figures. There was the run of the mill blood, guts and violence, but when the girls toys came out all kinds of freaky stuff went down. As we get older we compartmentalize, but kids won't hesitate to mix and match potty humour, violence, and sexuality in their role play. It's surprising these videos exist, but it's not surprising that they're popular.
- simulate 10y ago
  Did you replace it with the YouTube Kids app? https://kids.youtube.com/ https://kids.youtube.com/ YouTube Kids does a good job of filtering content inappropriate for children.
_nalply 10y ago
Youtube is hard on parents. So I wrote a TamperMonkey script to redirect to a blank page when a video ended.
- paulddraper 10y ago
  Awesome.
smrtinsert 10y ago
Has anyone commenting even watched the linked video? The channel being featured is horrifying for parents. This isn't about ads for toys (we had those, they were GIJoes or Transformers/Barbies). This is about 'content' that preys on children for views featuring overtly sexual themes and all sorts of violence, including rape. As a parent this frankly scares me.
- woliveirajr 10y ago
  My little girl loves seeing some videos on youtube. Began with playdoh eggs being opened to show surprises, now moved to little stories about girls taking care of her dolls. I try to watch together, sometimes I just listen to see what's being said or what noises are being made. Sometimes I have to interfere, but nothing scatological or sexual has arised yet (in those videos). Ahh, that eternal vigilance you have to make...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
akjainaj 10y ago
>This video has 661m views 600k likes and 231k dislikes. Its not because kids disliked it, its because they keep dropping their tablet and grab it before falling on the dislike button. [citation needed]
nlawalker 10y ago
How did these videos evolve to be the way that they are? Is it just titling with a combination of terms that kids are likely to hit in a search, plus colors/sounds/expressive faces/weird non-sequiturs that make kids laugh and watch the video to the end?
shostack 10y ago
Out of curiosity, has anyone tried making these? Is it relatively easy to get views?
citrusui 10y ago
This is interesting -- I never would have suspected seeing the channel linked above (h3h3productions) on a HN post. Back to the point, YouTube has always had a problem with algorithms. It's fun to see new trends on YT from time to time, but not consistently for 3 months. There's no filtering out video suggestions, if for example you are only interested in technology. Likewise, on the YouTube trending tab, it's almost guaranteed you'll see CNN, BuzzFeed, TBS, VEVO every day. Instead of "Trending", I'd like to see an "Explore" tab that is personalized based on my _specific interests_, not the assumed interests gathered from the videos I've watched. Edit: I now realize that this isn't comment isn't directly related to the video, but I the link above shows that YouTube hasn't been strict enough on their policies. The people who make these toy channels aren't contributing to the YouTube community -- they're just cluttering it with unoriginal videos that miraculously make it to millions of user feeds.

33 points by markdown 10y ago

hydrogen18 10y ago

While interesting, I can't see how there is a difference between this and cartoons.

Neliquat 10y ago
Funny you mention that. Growing up, I remember watching the Transformers cartoon, and begging for the toys. Years later, I watched a retrospective program on the series, where they noted that The first episode was just a long form advert, and was so popular, they ordered a series, of toy commercials. So nothing is totally new here, except that the average youtuber seems to have no ethicical qualms about pushing any product, while networks did, and still do, qualify their advertisers.
- hydrogen18 10y ago
  Now that we're grown up, the transformers "movies" are really commercials for General Motors products. I seem to recall one movie even having just a dozen or so frames of the new Corvette before it was publicly available.
Grue3 10y ago
Cartoons are way more expensive to produce than these videos.
joenot443 10y ago
Have you actually watched any of the videos in question? A lot of them are blatantly, and bizzarely, sexualized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F4WrhzX-ZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F4WrhzX-ZU It isn't so much the obvious product placement and toy-pushing that's disturbing to me, it's the actual content. There isn't really much YouTube can do about it, it's more so the responsibility of the parents to limit their kids free-reign internet consumption.
yellowapple 10y ago
Having watched the video in question: the difference is that these videos are crossing into softcore porn, which usually ain't the case in cartoons (at least the ones aimed at children).

tdkl 10y ago

Well it's easiest to addict them when they're young and clueless.

petercooper 10y ago

How easy it is to start to sound like our parents' generation eventually! Video games were ruining society once and, before that, discotheques, TVs and rock music. I have two young children who enjoy YouTube more than TV and while they do watch a lot of weird (kids') channels, they've learnt a lot too and I haven't seen it play out in any negative way so far. At the least, they've seen people with many more opinions and of many more cultures and races than I had at their age - a good thing, to me. Let's keep an eye on this and continue to be observant, caring parents who don't give up responsibilities to an iPad, but at the same time let's not be the parents who say the Smashing Pumpkins' lyrics are scrambling your brains when they aren't.

joenot443 10y ago
While I agree with the premise, I'd have to say there's quite a bit more artistic value to Smashing Pumpkins or Marilyn Manson, or whatever other 'satanic' artists our parents hated than these strange, mindless kids YouTube videos.
- fwn 10y ago
  Some content is better, some worse. Arguing with the good content of our own generation against the bad content of the next generation is probably very typical for all of us.
- CaptSpify 10y ago
  I would argue that artistic value is highly subjective. People used to argue that jazz was just random noise and nonsense for a long time.
  - thedudemabry 10y ago
    True, and I don't want to jump the overprotective-parent gun here, but what I think is worth keeping an eye on with these videos is how they are not an underrepresented group expressing their creativity, but rather a very well represented group targeting a vulnerable audience. There are no easy lines to draw, but I think it does bear further scrutiny and discussion (especially from folks used to defending forms of media from demonization.)

astalwick 10y ago

We removed the youtube app from our iPad, because our 4 year old was starting to get too deep into these. There's a lot of great stuff on Youtube for kids (genuinely, whole-heartedly, terrific stuff; I was amazed), but there's also a lot of very, very weird and sexualized and violent content. Targeted at young children. And unfortunately, the 'recommended' sidebar is a little bit too eager in sending kids down those paths. I see some comments comparing it to 'video games ruining society' and 'violent cartoons'. No, it is not at all the same thing. I have no problem handing the ipad to my son and allowing him to select a show on Netflix. Youtube crossed my 'wtf creepy' threshold a few too many times.

nonsince 10y ago
The difference is between art which is seen as "too adult" being said to ruin society (like movies/games), which generally aren't that bad, and content which is specifically targeted at exploiting children's mental weaknesses for monetary gain. I don't think they're "ruining society", but it's definitely gross and something we should fight if at all possible
Fricken 10y ago
It's disturbing to see our id reflected back at us in the behavior of our children, but I remember playing with action figures. There was the run of the mill blood, guts and violence, but when the girls toys came out all kinds of freaky stuff went down. As we get older we compartmentalize, but kids won't hesitate to mix and match potty humour, violence, and sexuality in their role play. It's surprising these videos exist, but it's not surprising that they're popular.
simulate 10y ago
Did you replace it with the YouTube Kids app? https://kids.youtube.com/ https://kids.youtube.com/ YouTube Kids does a good job of filtering content inappropriate for children.

_nalply 10y ago

Youtube is hard on parents. So I wrote a TamperMonkey script to redirect to a blank page when a video ended.

paulddraper 10y ago
Awesome.

smrtinsert 10y ago

Has anyone commenting even watched the linked video? The channel being featured is horrifying for parents. This isn't about ads for toys (we had those, they were GIJoes or Transformers/Barbies). This is about 'content' that preys on children for views featuring overtly sexual themes and all sorts of violence, including rape. As a parent this frankly scares me.

woliveirajr 10y ago
My little girl loves seeing some videos on youtube. Began with playdoh eggs being opened to show surprises, now moved to little stories about girls taking care of her dolls. I try to watch together, sometimes I just listen to see what's being said or what noises are being made. Sometimes I have to interfere, but nothing scatological or sexual has arised yet (in those videos). Ahh, that eternal vigilance you have to make...
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

akjainaj 10y ago

>This video has 661m views 600k likes and 231k dislikes. Its not because kids disliked it, its because they keep dropping their tablet and grab it before falling on the dislike button. [citation needed]

nlawalker 10y ago

How did these videos evolve to be the way that they are? Is it just titling with a combination of terms that kids are likely to hit in a search, plus colors/sounds/expressive faces/weird non-sequiturs that make kids laugh and watch the video to the end?

shostack 10y ago

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried making these? Is it relatively easy to get views?

citrusui 10y ago

This is interesting -- I never would have suspected seeing the channel linked above (h3h3productions) on a HN post. Back to the point, YouTube has always had a problem with algorithms. It's fun to see new trends on YT from time to time, but not consistently for 3 months. There's no filtering out video suggestions, if for example you are only interested in technology. Likewise, on the YouTube trending tab, it's almost guaranteed you'll see CNN, BuzzFeed, TBS, VEVO every day. Instead of "Trending", I'd like to see an "Explore" tab that is personalized based on my _specific interests_, not the assumed interests gathered from the videos I've watched. Edit: I now realize that this isn't comment isn't directly related to the video, but I the link above shows that YouTube hasn't been strict enough on their policies. The people who make these toy channels aren't contributing to the YouTube community -- they're just cluttering it with unoriginal videos that miraculously make it to millions of user feeds.