What Are You Going to Do With Kids YouTube Videos?
When parents allow their children to watch YouTube videos, it is usually not because they are in a relaxed mental state and want to give their child some fun learning moments. Much of the content is essentially “toddler crack , ” a series of insane, mindless clips that strangely captivate tiny viewers (and blissfully quiet) when mums and dads need a break.
There have been reports of violent, sexual, or disturbing material that is passed off as legitimate children’s videos (see Or Actually Not :Peppa Pig Eats Her Dad ,Drinks Bleach, or Wields Knives and Weapons ). We’ve listed several ways to keep your kids safe from this kind of thing, and YouTube Kids just added some brand new parental control features , but in this in-depth analysis of Medium across all of our feeds, writer James Bridle argues that we might all be overlooking more important point. And the fact is, children are knowingly and systematically exploited through content, and none of us know exactly how to do it.
In an article titled “Something Wrong on the Internet,” Bridle writes:
These videos, wherever they are created, however they are created, and whatever their conscious intent (i.e. accumulating ad revenue), they are fueled by a system that was deliberately designed to show videos to children for profit. … Unconsciously arising outcomes of this arise everywhere.
It is abuse to show this content to children. We are not talking about the controversial but undoubtedly real effects of violence in films or video games on teens, or the effects of pornography or extreme images on young minds, which were mentioned in my introductory description of Internet use in adolescence. These are important discussions, but they are not discussed here. What we are talking about is that very young children, in fact, from birth, deliberately become objects of content that traumatizes and disturbs them, through networks that are extremely vulnerable to this particular form of abuse. This is not about trolls, but a kind of violence inherent in the combination of digital systems and capitalist incentives. It’s down to that metal level.
I think this is my point of view: the system is complicit in abuse.
The whole part is worth reading as Bridle brings to his senses the idea that “it is done by people, things and a combination of things and people” – intentionally. As parents, how do you feel about children’s content on YouTube or YouTube Kids? Filter, track, or just delete everything together? Have you seen any disturbing, violent or just weird videos? Do you feel uncomfortable with Bridle’s piece, or do you think the whole problem is exaggerated?