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Did the inappropriate content happen with a certain age range set? I totally believe this happens / feel like a bad parent for not cutting it off, but we have

Did the inappropriate content happen with a certain age range set? I totally believe this happens / feel like a bad parent for not cutting it off, but we have the app set on 2 year old and under and I’ve seen a lot of dumb stuff but nothing inappropriate yet. I’m just curious if this becomes an issue that boils down to where you set the age range or if I’m just playing an epically long game of Russian roulette right now.

developer2 7y ago
You replied to a comment where their primary concern is, quote: "When a scary clown jumps out and screams, that's traumatizing". Not porn, sexual innuendo, or pedophiles looking for potential victims. Not war, or violence, or even brainwashing advertisements. It's clowns... their primary fear about YouTube's content is the possibility their sensitive child will be exposed to a clown. It's impossible to satisfy everyone, regardless of the content rules, and no mater how curated. YouTube could spend a billion dollars curating content, along with surveys where 90% of parents have to approve a video before it is included, and the remaining 10% would still be the vocal minority ruining it for everyone. Sure, YouTube probably doesn't do quite enough. But when you have parents looking to let YouTube babysit their 2-8 year old children without supervision, whose fault is that? YouTube's, I'm sure. /s
- _AzMoo 7y ago
  A scary clown. Like Pennywise. Randomly popping up and loudly screaming in the middle of an educational video about buses. I don't want my kids being exposed to that either, and I don't know any parents that would. The commenter wasn't talking about letting their children watch unsupervised, even supervising your children won't stop this type of thing from doing damage.
  - barry-cotter 7y ago
    A video of a scary clown? Doing damage? Do you realize how insane you sound? That’s unpleasant. That’s scary. That could lead to nightmares. But damage? Even two year olds aren’t made of cotton wool.
    - nojvek 7y ago
      Dunno man. Kids have nightmares about all sorts of things. They cry all night and want to be cuddled with. If nightmares and screaming is repeated over and over again, it can lead to some very traumatic experiences in their young brains.
      - samat 7y ago
        Kids want to be cuddled no matter what. That’s how humans are wired.
    - Angostura 7y ago
      I'm intrigued that you think that a video that causes persistent nightmares, being afraid to go to bed and trouble sleeping across several nights can't be described as 'damaging'
      - barry-cotter 7y ago
        For something to be damaging there would have to be some damage somewhere. You wouldn’t describe a bad head cold as dancing and that will absolutely lead to a pissed off two year old with trouble sleeping for several nights. When I taught kindergarten one of the children in the youngest class at the time was terrified of the Eensy Weensy Spider video and of the Elephant in a Hickory Dickory Dock video. I told her to close her eyes when it was coming up. She did. Eventually she got over it. The idea that a scary clown can be “damaging” is a testament to helicopter parenting. Up to 1900 it would be a rare person indeed that didn’t have siblings die before they were ten and basically no one would make it b that far without having a friend or family member die. That’s trauma. That’s damaging.
        colejohnson66 7y ago
        > For something to be damaging there would have to be some damage somewhere. You seem to think emotional trauma isn’t real. It is. And studies of its effects show that it is just as harmful to the brain as physical trauma.
- jedberg 7y ago
  The clown was just an example, and it's not just "a clown", it was something designed specifically to frighten young children, where the poster had gamed YouTube's systems to have it show up in the kids section. And I never let the watch unsupervised. But at least with every other streaming service, I don't need to preview the content ahead of time.
  - ben174 7y ago
    Wow. Who /are/ these people? What is their goal? Are there really people on earth with the exclusive motive to scare a two year old and give her nightmares? That is some next level evil.
    - gnu8 7y ago
      The source of these videos could be anything from lone assholes to a state sponsored program to destabilize western civilization. Without tracking down the person who uploaded a given video and hitting them with a sock full of quarters until they explain themselves, it is impossible to know.
nojvek 7y ago
A friends 1 year old was watching YT unsupervised. Some of the videos were super creepy. Like cockroaches coming out of LEGO bricks and being smashed (coackroach blood and things) and then they reversed and the cockroaches multiplied and took over LEGO tower. Kid was super memsmerized. I was totally WTF-ed. 100% agree. YT kids is not safe for kids. I wouldn’t show it to my kids. I instead download the videos I want and manually make a playlist. There is wayyyyyyy too much garbage in YT kids.
- unicornporn 7y ago
  My problem with YT Kids is that the business model of YouTube is inherently incompatible with children and law. Here in Sweden advertising targeted at children is banned[1]. YouTube Kids is more or less all product placement, influencer "reviews" and sponsored content. Why would a child need thousands of videos? I would curate and download a library of videos. [1] https://theculturetrip.com/europe/sweden/articles/sweden-bans-advertising-targeted-children/ https://theculturetrip.com/europe/sweden/articles/sweden-ban...
- iso947 7y ago
  > A friends 1 year old was watching YT unsupervised Parenting is not something you can automate
- kennydude 7y ago
  Sounds like the people behind the bootleg Peppa Pig videos are still going then :( https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/17/peppa-pig-youtube-weird-algorithms-automated-content https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/17/peppa-pig...
- datashow 7y ago
  Or just play PBS kids, which has apps on multiple platforms, good quality, and totally free. Right now my kids are small. I think PBS kids should be enough for them. When they want to find something else to watch, I know they just had too much screen time and they need to do something else other than watching TV.
- antisthenes 7y ago

developer2 7y ago

You replied to a comment where their primary concern is, quote: "When a scary clown jumps out and screams, that's traumatizing". Not porn, sexual innuendo, or pedophiles looking for potential victims. Not war, or violence, or even brainwashing advertisements. It's clowns... their primary fear about YouTube's content is the possibility their sensitive child will be exposed to a clown. It's impossible to satisfy everyone, regardless of the content rules, and no mater how curated. YouTube could spend a billion dollars curating content, along with surveys where 90% of parents have to approve a video before it is included, and the remaining 10% would still be the vocal minority ruining it for everyone. Sure, YouTube probably doesn't do quite enough. But when you have parents looking to let YouTube babysit their 2-8 year old children without supervision, whose fault is that? YouTube's, I'm sure. /s

_AzMoo 7y ago
A scary clown. Like Pennywise. Randomly popping up and loudly screaming in the middle of an educational video about buses. I don't want my kids being exposed to that either, and I don't know any parents that would. The commenter wasn't talking about letting their children watch unsupervised, even supervising your children won't stop this type of thing from doing damage.
- barry-cotter 7y ago
  A video of a scary clown? Doing damage? Do you realize how insane you sound? That’s unpleasant. That’s scary. That could lead to nightmares. But damage? Even two year olds aren’t made of cotton wool.
  - nojvek 7y ago
    Dunno man. Kids have nightmares about all sorts of things. They cry all night and want to be cuddled with. If nightmares and screaming is repeated over and over again, it can lead to some very traumatic experiences in their young brains.
    - samat 7y ago
      Kids want to be cuddled no matter what. That’s how humans are wired.
  - Angostura 7y ago
    I'm intrigued that you think that a video that causes persistent nightmares, being afraid to go to bed and trouble sleeping across several nights can't be described as 'damaging'
    - barry-cotter 7y ago
      For something to be damaging there would have to be some damage somewhere. You wouldn’t describe a bad head cold as dancing and that will absolutely lead to a pissed off two year old with trouble sleeping for several nights. When I taught kindergarten one of the children in the youngest class at the time was terrified of the Eensy Weensy Spider video and of the Elephant in a Hickory Dickory Dock video. I told her to close her eyes when it was coming up. She did. Eventually she got over it. The idea that a scary clown can be “damaging” is a testament to helicopter parenting. Up to 1900 it would be a rare person indeed that didn’t have siblings die before they were ten and basically no one would make it b that far without having a friend or family member die. That’s trauma. That’s damaging.
      - colejohnson66 7y ago
        > For something to be damaging there would have to be some damage somewhere. You seem to think emotional trauma isn’t real. It is. And studies of its effects show that it is just as harmful to the brain as physical trauma.
jedberg 7y ago
The clown was just an example, and it's not just "a clown", it was something designed specifically to frighten young children, where the poster had gamed YouTube's systems to have it show up in the kids section. And I never let the watch unsupervised. But at least with every other streaming service, I don't need to preview the content ahead of time.
- ben174 7y ago
  Wow. Who /are/ these people? What is their goal? Are there really people on earth with the exclusive motive to scare a two year old and give her nightmares? That is some next level evil.
  - gnu8 7y ago
    The source of these videos could be anything from lone assholes to a state sponsored program to destabilize western civilization. Without tracking down the person who uploaded a given video and hitting them with a sock full of quarters until they explain themselves, it is impossible to know.

nojvek 7y ago

A friends 1 year old was watching YT unsupervised. Some of the videos were super creepy. Like cockroaches coming out of LEGO bricks and being smashed (coackroach blood and things) and then they reversed and the cockroaches multiplied and took over LEGO tower. Kid was super memsmerized. I was totally WTF-ed. 100% agree. YT kids is not safe for kids. I wouldn’t show it to my kids. I instead download the videos I want and manually make a playlist. There is wayyyyyyy too much garbage in YT kids.

unicornporn 7y ago
My problem with YT Kids is that the business model of YouTube is inherently incompatible with children and law. Here in Sweden advertising targeted at children is banned[1]. YouTube Kids is more or less all product placement, influencer "reviews" and sponsored content. Why would a child need thousands of videos? I would curate and download a library of videos. [1] https://theculturetrip.com/europe/sweden/articles/sweden-bans-advertising-targeted-children/ https://theculturetrip.com/europe/sweden/articles/sweden-ban...
iso947 7y ago
> A friends 1 year old was watching YT unsupervised Parenting is not something you can automate
kennydude 7y ago
Sounds like the people behind the bootleg Peppa Pig videos are still going then :( https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/17/peppa-pig-youtube-weird-algorithms-automated-content https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/17/peppa-pig...
datashow 7y ago
Or just play PBS kids, which has apps on multiple platforms, good quality, and totally free. Right now my kids are small. I think PBS kids should be enough for them. When they want to find something else to watch, I know they just had too much screen time and they need to do something else other than watching TV.
antisthenes 7y ago