F#8%cking Google

We'd let our 4 year old son look at videos on YT Kids every so often, not for hours at a time or anything, but maybe 15-30 min here and there and we always made sure what he was watching was legit and not anything inappropriate.

I come to find out that some sickos are creating innocuous-looking videos, but inter-cutting clips of sick shit like a man telling kids how to slit their wrists! WTF!

We immediately removed the app from all devices and will never use it again and our son is only going to be allowed to look and play on his LeapPad from now on which is a kid-friendly pad that does not connect to the internet and has very appropriate games and videos on it.

What really pissed me off is the woman in the news story contacted Google to remove the video and it took them A WHOLE WEEK. Meanwhile if you post some conservative stuff that FB or YT doesn't like, they'll yank that in minutes or hours!

quote:

A pediatrician exposes suicide tips for children hidden in videos on YouTube and YouTube Kids

Free Hess, a pediatrician and mother, had learned about the chilling videos over the summer when another mom spotted one on YouTube Kids.

She said that minutes into the clip from a children’s video game, a man appeared on the screen — offering instructions on how to commit suicide.

“I was shocked,” Hess said, noting that since then, the scene has been spliced into several more videos from the popular Nintendo game Splatoon on YouTube and YouTube Kids, a video app for children. Hess, from Ocala, Fla., has been blogging about the altered videos and working to get them taken down amid an outcry from parents and child health experts, who say such visuals can be damaging to children.

One on YouTube shows a man pop into the frame. “Remember, kids,” he begins, holding what appears to be an imaginary blade to the inside of his arm. “Sideways for attention. Longways for results.”

Link

Unbelievable.

I hope that there are electronic footprints that will allow this sick bastard to be found.

My daughter put on a YouTube Kids video the other day with a kid telling jokes. He started talking about sword swallowing, and how his dad told him his mom wasn't interested in sword swallowing anymore after they got married. Fortunately my daughter, 8 years old, didn't get the entendre. Needless to say, YTK is no longer on any devices in our house.

Crap like that is also why we don't trust any online content. If our kids are going to watch something, it has to be in the room with us. I don't trust the censors at Google or anywhere else to have the same standards that I have.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsagate

Some real sick shit that YouTube did nothing about until overwhelming coverage.

Our 3.5 year old likes to watch YouTube videos of kids playing with toys. Makes no sense to me but okay

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Our 3.5 year old likes to watch YouTube videos of kids playing with toys. Makes no sense to me but okay

Same here, but now you don't know if there are intercuts of sick or inappropriate stuff now in them.

We are done with the app.

There has always been this sort of stuff around. Technology just makes it more prolific. Child predators and other deviants live everywhere.

As a parent you have to keep up with these things. Obviously you do. I see too many parents just hand the kid the phone to keep them quiet. As your children grow older you need to spend time teaching them about danger and how to deal with child predators. It takes time but can be done.

The revenue generated from some of those channels is obnoxious.

Check out Ryan's Toy Review

Both of my kids loved Youtube when they were smaller, and still do.

But I wouldn't trust any censor/censoring service.

We carefully monitored what they had access to, and would very carefully scan the history list of the account they were browsing under, to verify what they were watching/see if we missed anything.

Anything we didn't care for would disappear from the history, at least making it harder for them to find again later.

Lots of garbage truck videos (there's an entire subculture of garbage truck enthusiasts out there, like rail fans except for garbage trucks), rail fan videos, toy reviews, etc etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Our 3.5 year old likes to watch YouTube videos of kids playing with toys. Makes no sense to me but okay

And that 8 year old kid, playing with toys with a Youtube channel, makes $35 MILLION DOLLARS a year in ad revenue, and has a net worth of $100 MILLION DOLLARS. YES, an 8 year old kid that plays with toys on Youtube, is worth $100 million dollars. Puke.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Our 3.5 year old likes to watch YouTube videos of kids playing with toys. Makes no sense to me but okay

And that 8 year old kid, playing with toys with a Youtube channel, makes $35 MILLION DOLLARS a year in ad revenue, and has a net worth of $100 MILLION DOLLARS. YES, an 8 year old kid that plays with toys on Youtube, is worth $100 million dollars. Puke.

Why?

What's wrong with providing people with something they want to watch, and getting rewarded (a TINY bit at a time) for it?

Better that kid than any studio exec I can think of.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Our 3.5 year old likes to watch YouTube videos of kids playing with toys. Makes no sense to me but okay

And that 8 year old kid, playing with toys with a Youtube channel, makes $35 MILLION DOLLARS a year in ad revenue, and has a net worth of $100 MILLION DOLLARS. YES, an 8 year old kid that plays with toys on Youtube, is worth $100 million dollars. Puke.

And grown ass adults watch other grown ass adults going about their day to day lives (reality tv), and they too are also highly compensated (Kim Kardashian is worth $350million, her sister Kylie Jennar is worth over a billion because of her fashion and makeup lines).

My kid loves Ryan’s toy review. We will be keeping a much closer eye on it, but I’ve seen nothing untoward. Not as yet.

One of my co-workers related that a girl cut off her hair after watching one of these fake videos. You just gotta be smart and make sure your kids are watching only official channels.

We deleted it as well.
Initially the Momo hoax was going around but then I read where they had taken Peppa Pig and the episode started as usual but they would add scenes where they were stabbing each other and gauging each other’s eyes out.
I figured that was nonsense too.
Rarely do our kids get to hold a tablet or phone to watch something. Generally just an episode of Andy Griffith on the TV awhile eating breakfast and one in the evening when weather is crap and are stuck inside.
But the other day I let the boy watch a little on YouTube kids and I picked Captain Underpants. It got extra loud all the sudden so I took the phone and sure enough they were stabbing each other and screaming with blood flying all over then one started hitting another with a hammer or something and blood flying all over.
I was pissed. YouTube kids deleted!

I had the same problem with the peppa pig videos.

yup, gotta keep an eye on what they are tuning into.

And to think, the biggest worry my parents had was that I might switch the channel to "General Hospital" at the wrong moment.

Do kids (3-10 years old) even know how to play outdoors....alone? I grew up with a small second hand fleet of Tonka trucks mining the back yard for thousands of hours. I cannot see the benefit of parking kids in front of the TV or video whatever for thousands of hours. Kids need dirt, grime, activity, sunshine and thought provoking activities to be healthy.

quote:

Originally posted by phydough:
Do kids (3-10 years old) even know how to play outdoors....alone? I grew up with a small second hand fleet of Tonka trucks mining the back yard for thousands of hours. I cannot see the benefit of parking kids in front of the TV or video whatever for thousands of hours. Kids need dirt, grime, activity, sunshine and thought provoking activities to be healthy.

That takes too much time and effort for most parents.

They gots to be posting in FaceSpace/Twatter and taking pictures of the food they're making for their imaginary friends online and stuff.

My kids are older now and have some internet access, but from 0-10 they pretty much had jack squat in that arena. Some TV, sure. But not Youtube and shit.

The "toy review" videos, while not suicide instructions, are not "brain food." My son isn't allowed to watch those, any unboxing or magic egg videos, no baby shark shit, no daddy finger shit, actually at this point nothing on Youtube.

There are a number of great kids shows on Netflix and Amazon, as well as PBS kids. These are all professionally produced and contain no disturbing content that I have yet detected.

Story Bots, Stinky and Dirty, Dino Dana, Word Girl, these are all good shows.

I would encourage you to not let your kid sit and watch toy videos, they are only learning consumerism. Also, the amount of stolen and manipulated content on Youtube is ridiculous, and frankly I don't trust it at all to be shown to children.

Arc, give wird world a look when age appropriate. Heck, it entertained me to see how they drew everything with words.