Elsagate ...disturbing stuff.

[HalfShellHero]

I saw the video philip defranco made on this subject. I came across this with my own kids on YouTube kids and I've uninstalled it as the disturbing content seems to flow thick and fast through there more so thanks to these sickos and autoplay but it really is a rabbithole it seems. It's such an important topic thought mumsnetters might be interested.

What's the video?

Sorry that's the wrong link

Yes, but what is it?

Sorry the link isn't working or wrong vid I'm going to try and find out how to link it grrr!

Your post just seems a bit spammy so I don't want to click on a random link

It's a video of philip defranco bringing attention to the issue of YouTube videos being targeting at children in a sinister way often containing Spiderman Elsa etc there's a sub reddit page dedicated to this issue which us informative. www.reddit.com/r/ElsaGate/

Ah OK, thanks

That link might be more successful

For some reason when I try to link to the philip defranco video it doesn't work pfft good video too.

Blergh... I just googled

Do you mean like the fake peppa pig videos?

I recently came across this article about kids YouTube stuff - I haven't seen your video but this is very detailed (and long!) and pretty scary.

Peppa pig Disney all sorts...a channel called toy freaks was recently deleted which was a single dad making his 2 daughter act out some wierd bad baby sketches seriously dodgy stuff ...its like a rabbit hole. And don't get me started on the killer clown stuff cropping up on YT Kids sometimes...

Yeah May i read that too very good article, Who's making this stuff? Who's verifying It??

Um ... who is giving their child free access to YouTube??
This isn't a YouTube content problem, this is a parenting problem imo.

I agree haba

I think the problem might arise because child is watching a video, then the parent gets distracted and meanwhile YouTube auto-plays the next thing which could be god-knows-what.

I would have thought that You Tube Kids would be safe!!

I will uninstall.

I caught my son watching one of those. He thought it was funny and didn’t realise. It looked like a Disney character (fine for me to glance at) but was full of profanities.

On Youtube Kids, which you expect to be safe!

Thanks for the link to that article, MayFayner. Very interesting.

In case anyone wants to know before they click, the article is
Something is wrong on the internet by James Bridle at
medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2

Yes, exactly- it's YouTube Kids isn't it.

I'm not too familiar with it as my younger ones are only 3 and 20mo, but DH sometimes puts it in for them and they've already developed a taste for colourful cars driving in and out of garages. I always turn it off when I see it because I think it's pointless screen-time (if they're going to have screen time there's loads of good kids' tv, no need for this stuff) and I just took against it in general because I'm old and hate change

I was actually glad in a way when I read the article above because it articulated facts that backed up my gut reaction to a lot of the You Tube stuff, and I got DH to read it and got him on board.

No problem. I see it's being discussed on another thread here tonight too, seems like everyone is waking up to this.

Those Elsa/Spiderman ones are the worst the first few minutes seem fine then the weird stuff starts...why would that be done so deliberately if it wasn't so insidious? You can't "blame the parents" for that something obviously bigger at play here and these videos generate millions of views.

Yeah really good contribution May is a very good article.im glad people are waking up to it and realising it for what it is.

On-demand video is catnip to both parents and to children, and thus to content creators and advertisers. Small children are mesmerised by these videos, whether it’s familiar characters and songs, or simply bright colours and soothing sounds. The length of many of these videos — one common video tactic is to assemble many nursery rhyme or cartoon episodes into hour+ compilations —and the way that length is marketed as part of the video’s appeal, points to the amount of time some kids are spending with them.

It's literally like catnip: a lot of apps are intended to give the user constant little hits of dopamine, by offering the right sort of emotional rewards at regular intervals.

Ex-Facebook president Sean Parker: site made to exploit human 'vulnerability'
Site’s founding president, who became a billionaire thanks to the company, says: ‘God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains’
www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/09/facebook-sean-parker-vulnerability-brain-psychology
...
He explained that when Facebook was being developed the objective was: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” It was this mindset that led to the creation of features such as the “like” button that would give users “a little dopamine hit” to encourage them to upload more content.

“It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.”