4 ms·

Firstly, gambling companies shouldn't be allowed to market to kids at all, full stop. Secondly, Jake Paul appeared to do the bare minimum legally to post the v

Firstly, gambling companies shouldn't be allowed to market to kids at all, full stop. Secondly, Jake Paul appeared to do the bare minimum legally to post the video (a small, singline-line "Sponsored by Mystery Company" disclaimer note is displayed towards the beginning of the video. What was particularly heinous in this situation was that Jake Paul spent a lot of money betting on certain boxes and wound up winning a handful of high-priced items. They did not make it clear in the video that what they were doing was actual gambling, instead choosing to focus on "winning prizes". Another YouTuber, Ricegum, even went as far to claim to the effect that this was like investing your money and watching it grow. Absolutely unacceptable language in any advertising case. Here's one specific perspective of what happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ewyEF3Wd9M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ewyEF3Wd9M

dmix 7y ago
I wasn't really familiar with these mystery boxes before commenting, apologies. That seems like pretty explicit gambling. So maybe gambling legislation could cover this? Which helpfully narrows the problem down for legislators to a specific thing targeting kids. My only concern was harmless false positives getting flagged from over-eager "think of the children" type reactions to new things that are ill defined. So the narrower and more specific the better.
- save_ferris 7y ago
  Absolutely, I'm in favor of specific rules around specific types of content. In most cases, I'd be comfortable with that genre of content if the financial incentives are clearly indicated and acknowledged. The problem is that this doesn't happen as often as it should. You mentioned podcasts as an example. Podcasts are more like traditional media in that they produce content that usually isn't generated with the help or influence of outside parties. They may advertise, and when they do, it's clear what that you're being advertised and what you're being advertised. It's still way too easy to blur the lines on YouTube, and there's clearly financial incentive do so. We all know that ML-driven content screening can only do so much, and that we're not likely to get rid of malicious content anytime soon. That's why its important to create a system where content creators follow specific rules around sponsorship disclosures, and social media companies need to do more to make that data accessible to the public.
- TylerE 7y ago
  Very tough to do much legally because these companies are shells operated out of Lower East Moldrovia.

dmix 7y ago

I wasn't really familiar with these mystery boxes before commenting, apologies. That seems like pretty explicit gambling. So maybe gambling legislation could cover this? Which helpfully narrows the problem down for legislators to a specific thing targeting kids. My only concern was harmless false positives getting flagged from over-eager "think of the children" type reactions to new things that are ill defined. So the narrower and more specific the better.

save_ferris 7y ago
Absolutely, I'm in favor of specific rules around specific types of content. In most cases, I'd be comfortable with that genre of content if the financial incentives are clearly indicated and acknowledged. The problem is that this doesn't happen as often as it should. You mentioned podcasts as an example. Podcasts are more like traditional media in that they produce content that usually isn't generated with the help or influence of outside parties. They may advertise, and when they do, it's clear what that you're being advertised and what you're being advertised. It's still way too easy to blur the lines on YouTube, and there's clearly financial incentive do so. We all know that ML-driven content screening can only do so much, and that we're not likely to get rid of malicious content anytime soon. That's why its important to create a system where content creators follow specific rules around sponsorship disclosures, and social media companies need to do more to make that data accessible to the public.
TylerE 7y ago
Very tough to do much legally because these companies are shells operated out of Lower East Moldrovia.