6 ms·

It seems like Youtube Kids is an abomination on every level. Between Elsagate, privacy violations, and the generally pathetic unboxing-oriented nature of its m

by Pxtl 7y ago

It seems like Youtube Kids is an abomination on every level. Between Elsagate, privacy violations, and the generally pathetic unboxing-oriented nature of its mainstay content, it's a revolting offering for children. Of all the Google products that get deprecated or killed, this is the one I wish they'd amputate.

dna_polymerase 7y ago
This whole Elsagate stuff is only the tip of the iceberg. People like Jake Paul produce horrific 'content' targeted at young audiences. I can recommend this video on the topic (not 100% about YT Kids, but it is in there): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywcY8TvES6c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywcY8TvES6c
- CriticalCathed 7y ago
  Deep eyeroll. Horrific is a grand overstatement. Children need protection from predatory advertising, but suggestive, stupid, or violent content isn't going to hurt kids (pre-teen ages.) Kids don't really need sheltering; and, it doesn't really work anyway. What they need is guidance and context, which only an involved parent can provide. To be clear I don't mean that they need their parents to digest content then regurgitate it to them.
  - SkyBelow 7y ago
    Some of it is needlessly gross but of no significant concern. Some of it is truly horrifying. Take the ASMR cop incident, and the whole family enabling their child to keep producing such content.
    - icebraining 7y ago
      What's the ASMR cop incident?
      - i_am_nomad 7y ago
        If I understand correctly, there was a young teen girl who did an ASMR video in a form-fitting “sexy cop” outfit. The whole thing was YT-monetized, and aided and abetted by her parents.
        manfredo 7y ago
        The even bigger deal was the fact that a YouTuber that made a video pointing out the problematic nature of those ASMR videos had his critical video taken down got a content strike.
      - DanBC 7y ago
        It's described in this video. A child wore a cop costume and did bad ASMR. The YT description was "SASSY Police Officer / Cop Roleplay ️ SASSY AND RUDE" -- uncomfortable language when applied to a young teenager. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M78rlxEMBxk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M78rlxEMBxk The channel is still active. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC88Qzl8DnaiR0Pxadh56iQw/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC88Qzl8DnaiR0Pxadh56iQw/
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
  - dna_polymerase 7y ago
    I wouldn't want my kids exposed to this stuff. I don't want them to learn this as desirable behavior.
- input_sh 7y ago
  Oh wow, I'm like half way through the video, and it just keeps getting worse. Disgusting. YouTube is 100% an accomplice.
LargeWu 7y ago
I think it's overblown. My kid watches YTK sometimes, and he watches mostly people playing with Lego and hotwheels cars, and animal videos. I've never actually seen any of that sort of questionable content.
- mox1 7y ago
  Yea, look a little closer. A lot of that stuff they are playing with is sponsored content. The toy maker is paying for the kid to play with that toy. Further, no matter what you kid starts watching, the recommendation algorithms always head you down the path to this content. Start with sesame street or some known A+ content, 5 mins later its "learn colors with Mattel car" x 1000. You really need to whitelist things, to avoid the "Billys toy review" and the 10,000 clones.
  - sdenton4 7y ago
    "A lot of that stuff they are playing with is sponsored content. The toy maker is paying for the kid to play with that toy." I think this ship sailed like eighty years ago... Seriously just about every successful kids show from my youth - with the possible partial exception of Sesame Street - were thinly disguised toy advertisements.
    - SomeOldThrow 7y ago
      > I think this ship sailed like eighty years ago... Seriously just about every successful kids show from my youth - with the possible partial exception of Sesame Street - were thinly disguised toy advertisements. I grew up on Arthur, Mr Rogers, and Sesame Street. It’s certainly possible to have quality noncommercial children’s programming.
      - falcolas 7y ago
        That's easily less than two hours per week of content (more if you have a kid today and can take advantage of backlogs). Sure, it's possible, but not in the quantities consumed by children.
EugeneOZ 7y ago
It's the only app I found where I can create whitelist of YouTube channels - my kid use it and loves it. And I pay for premium account to avoid all the ads - works great. Would be great to have an option to "ban" channels in YouTube (without additional apps), because some of "kids" content on YouTube looks pretty insane and I think can be harmful for kids.
ehsankia 7y ago
This lawsuit is not about Youtube Kids. YTK already has no data collection nor targeted ads (obviously). This is about kids watching Youtube Main on their parents account (you need to be 13+ to have a Youtube account). Youtube Kids also now has whitelisting, so you can in theory just pick channels manually and avoid all the bad crap.

by Pxtl 7y ago

dna_polymerase 7y ago

This whole Elsagate stuff is only the tip of the iceberg. People like Jake Paul produce horrific 'content' targeted at young audiences. I can recommend this video on the topic (not 100% about YT Kids, but it is in there): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywcY8TvES6c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywcY8TvES6c

CriticalCathed 7y ago
Deep eyeroll. Horrific is a grand overstatement. Children need protection from predatory advertising, but suggestive, stupid, or violent content isn't going to hurt kids (pre-teen ages.) Kids don't really need sheltering; and, it doesn't really work anyway. What they need is guidance and context, which only an involved parent can provide. To be clear I don't mean that they need their parents to digest content then regurgitate it to them.
- SkyBelow 7y ago
  Some of it is needlessly gross but of no significant concern. Some of it is truly horrifying. Take the ASMR cop incident, and the whole family enabling their child to keep producing such content.
  - icebraining 7y ago
    What's the ASMR cop incident?
    - i_am_nomad 7y ago
      If I understand correctly, there was a young teen girl who did an ASMR video in a form-fitting “sexy cop” outfit. The whole thing was YT-monetized, and aided and abetted by her parents.
      - manfredo 7y ago
        The even bigger deal was the fact that a YouTuber that made a video pointing out the problematic nature of those ASMR videos had his critical video taken down got a content strike.
    - DanBC 7y ago
      It's described in this video. A child wore a cop costume and did bad ASMR. The YT description was "SASSY Police Officer / Cop Roleplay ️ SASSY AND RUDE" -- uncomfortable language when applied to a young teenager. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M78rlxEMBxk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M78rlxEMBxk The channel is still active. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC88Qzl8DnaiR0Pxadh56iQw/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC88Qzl8DnaiR0Pxadh56iQw/
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
- dna_polymerase 7y ago
  I wouldn't want my kids exposed to this stuff. I don't want them to learn this as desirable behavior.
input_sh 7y ago
Oh wow, I'm like half way through the video, and it just keeps getting worse. Disgusting. YouTube is 100% an accomplice.

LargeWu 7y ago

I think it's overblown. My kid watches YTK sometimes, and he watches mostly people playing with Lego and hotwheels cars, and animal videos. I've never actually seen any of that sort of questionable content.

mox1 7y ago
Yea, look a little closer. A lot of that stuff they are playing with is sponsored content. The toy maker is paying for the kid to play with that toy. Further, no matter what you kid starts watching, the recommendation algorithms always head you down the path to this content. Start with sesame street or some known A+ content, 5 mins later its "learn colors with Mattel car" x 1000. You really need to whitelist things, to avoid the "Billys toy review" and the 10,000 clones.
- sdenton4 7y ago
  "A lot of that stuff they are playing with is sponsored content. The toy maker is paying for the kid to play with that toy." I think this ship sailed like eighty years ago... Seriously just about every successful kids show from my youth - with the possible partial exception of Sesame Street - were thinly disguised toy advertisements.
  - SomeOldThrow 7y ago
    > I think this ship sailed like eighty years ago... Seriously just about every successful kids show from my youth - with the possible partial exception of Sesame Street - were thinly disguised toy advertisements. I grew up on Arthur, Mr Rogers, and Sesame Street. It’s certainly possible to have quality noncommercial children’s programming.
    - falcolas 7y ago
      That's easily less than two hours per week of content (more if you have a kid today and can take advantage of backlogs). Sure, it's possible, but not in the quantities consumed by children.

EugeneOZ 7y ago

It's the only app I found where I can create whitelist of YouTube channels - my kid use it and loves it. And I pay for premium account to avoid all the ads - works great. Would be great to have an option to "ban" channels in YouTube (without additional apps), because some of "kids" content on YouTube looks pretty insane and I think can be harmful for kids.

ehsankia 7y ago

This lawsuit is not about Youtube Kids. YTK already has no data collection nor targeted ads (obviously). This is about kids watching Youtube Main on their parents account (you need to be 13+ to have a Youtube account). Youtube Kids also now has whitelisting, so you can in theory just pick channels manually and avoid all the bad crap.