YouTube Kids Shows Videos Promoting Drug Culture, Firearms To Toddlers (theguardian.com) 79
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: YouTube is showing videos that promote skin-bleaching, weight loss, drug culture and firearms to children as young as two, a new investigation of the company's "Kids" app has found. YouTube Kids, an app and website released in 2015, is supposed to be a safer, curated version of the video-sharing website aimed at children under 13. It tailors content to three age groups: "older," "younger" and "preschool," roughly corresponding to those aged nine to 12 years old, four to seven, and under four. The company says it ensures that the videos on the service are family-friendly through "a mix of automated filters built by our engineering teams, human review and feedback from parents to protect our youngest users online." But, it cautions users "no system is perfect and inappropriate videos can slip through."
Research from the Tech Transparency Project, a US-based non-profit, shows that the system is indeed far from perfect. Using three different accounts, each set to one of app's age groups, the analysts discovered numerous videos that should not have made it past Google's filters. A Breaking Bad-themed cooking show, for instance, in which the hosts dress up in respirators and make jokes about the risk of inhaling the fumes, might be light-hearted viewing for adults or teens, but has been categorized by YouTube as being appropriate for "younger children" -- as has a Minecraft project to recreate the RV, "where the crystal meth is cooked," from the hit show. Songs sometimes slip mature themes into the children's app, too. Eric Clapton's Cocaine -- sample lyric "When your feeling is gone, and you wanna ride on, cocaine" -- is available to children as young as five as part of a guitar tuition series. Content aimed at gun users slips through the net, leading to younger children being shown a ranking of recoil pads, which protect shooters from the kickback of a firing gun, and older children being offered step-by-step instructions on how to build a shelf with a hidden compartment to conceal a pistol. Most alarming was content for kids that could lead to harmful body image issues. A popular Indian beauty influencer's post on how to apply skin-bleaching products was available for older kids, while even preschool children were shown a cartoon about the importance of burning calories to lose weight, which exhorted them to "wiggle your jiggle". In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson said: "We built YouTube Kids to create a safer environment for kids to explore their interests and curiosity, while giving parents the tools to customize the experience for their kids. We have a higher bar for which videos can be a part of the app and also empower parents to control what content their child can and cannot see. Upon review we have removed or age-gated a number of the flagged videos from the Kids app."
Research from the Tech Transparency Project, a US-based non-profit, shows that the system is indeed far from perfect. Using three different accounts, each set to one of app's age groups, the analysts discovered numerous videos that should not have made it past Google's filters. A Breaking Bad-themed cooking show, for instance, in which the hosts dress up in respirators and make jokes about the risk of inhaling the fumes, might be light-hearted viewing for adults or teens, but has been categorized by YouTube as being appropriate for "younger children" -- as has a Minecraft project to recreate the RV, "where the crystal meth is cooked," from the hit show. Songs sometimes slip mature themes into the children's app, too. Eric Clapton's Cocaine -- sample lyric "When your feeling is gone, and you wanna ride on, cocaine" -- is available to children as young as five as part of a guitar tuition series. Content aimed at gun users slips through the net, leading to younger children being shown a ranking of recoil pads, which protect shooters from the kickback of a firing gun, and older children being offered step-by-step instructions on how to build a shelf with a hidden compartment to conceal a pistol. Most alarming was content for kids that could lead to harmful body image issues. A popular Indian beauty influencer's post on how to apply skin-bleaching products was available for older kids, while even preschool children were shown a cartoon about the importance of burning calories to lose weight, which exhorted them to "wiggle your jiggle". In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson said: "We built YouTube Kids to create a safer environment for kids to explore their interests and curiosity, while giving parents the tools to customize the experience for their kids. We have a higher bar for which videos can be a part of the app and also empower parents to control what content their child can and cannot see. Upon review we have removed or age-gated a number of the flagged videos from the Kids app."
Colombia (Score:2)
Build your own Pablo Escobar cartel today!
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What the... I put "LEGO Colombia" in the subject field but /. stripped the brand name on the fly.
Let me guess (Score:2)
The Google uber mind was trained to search for Kids movies and the first it presented was Kids (1995).
Lol (Score:2, Funny)
"See! All you Trumpers who said Youtube and big tech were left leaning were wrong. They're clearly pro-2A!"
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That's Madison Cawthorn, dipshit. Geatz is the guy who uses Venmo to pay underage girls for sex. Cawthorn is the anti-LGBT prayer warrior with the handwriting of a third-grader who likes to dress up like a woman and have gay incest sex. If he was into women, his wife wouldn't have divorced him after 8 months.
He should really hook-up with Ladybugs at the next geriatric orgy. I think they'd have a blast!
It's the American Way! (Score:1)
Can't start'em early enough, amirite or amirite?
No sex though. Just like the British.
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> No sex though. Just like the British.
Sure... Gary Glitter, Jimmy Savile and Prince Andrew
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It showed at least that Vietnam was more responsible to dealing with Pedos than the west. Oh well he's finally in prison anyway. [nationalworld.com]
n 2015, the former pop star was sentenced to 16 years in prison for sexually abusing three young girls between 1975 and 1980.
His conviction was for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a child under the age of 13.
Abuse allegations against him only came to light years later when he was the first person arrested under Operation Yewtree.
The investigation was launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal.
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Rope. Tree. Some assembly required.
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Sometimes the best way is the easy way.
Re: It's the American Way! (Score:2)
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No sex though. Just like the British.
That may have been true in the 1950s but, nowadays, fear of sex and love of guns is very much a US thing!
So? (Score:2)
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> I watched madam butterfly when I was 5.
And now you post on slashdot. Next year it could be Reddit or 9gag. t's a slow slide downwards my friend. Haha
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Re:So? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh my God, young kids are being encouraged to dance in order to stay healthy and avoid obesity. IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!
Showing kids information about guns will, what?, somehow magically manifest a gun in the kid's hands so they can shoot themselves? Guns are real things and kids should know how to recognize them so that, at the very least, they can report to an adult if they find one out and unattended. Knowledge of recoil pads and how to build shelves won't harm children. Gimme a break.
Songs encouraging the use of illegal drugs does seem inappropriate, though. But lumping these other topics in with this one is just pure politics.
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Child psychology is reasonably well understood, and we know that seeing realistic guns on a screen makes children curious about them. That's why there is a general ban on them in cartoons aimed at young children. Sci-fi type guns are okay though, in fact they decrease interest in real ones that seem mundane by comparison.
That's the same reason why drugs are banned from those cartoons too, except for when they are portrayed in an extremely negative light. Even legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol, which are
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Showing kids information about guns will, what?, somehow magically manifest a gun in the kid's hands so they can shoot themselves? Guns are real things and kids should know how to recognize them so that, at the very least, they can report to an adult if they find one out and unattended.
Erm... How can you not read that back to yourself and say "I live in a fucked up society".
Over here in the non-fucked up part of the world, it's entirely possible for someone to go their entire childhood, if not their entire lives having never seen a firearm outside of a film, TV show, comic book or game. Random guns in the wild is not something the average child _should_ need to know how to deal with because firearm owners _should_ be responsible for the potentially dangerous things they own.
However
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Oh my God, young kids are being encouraged to dance in order to stay healthy and avoid obesity. IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!
Showing kids information about guns will, what?, somehow magically manifest a gun in the kid's hands
How many shill accounts you need to vote your pablum upwards?
There is nothing insightful about blatant ignorance of what kids are consuming for media.
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if your kid is too dumb to not know that they can't be blamed for the actions of their ancestors
But don't let them say that out loud. Or they'll be assigned to sensitivity training until they accept their share of the blame.
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You guys have some wild imaginations. You should write fiction. I mean, on purpose.
Don't worry. I can assure you that CRT is not being taught to any primary or secondary school students in any public schools.
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https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/search/products/page-1/sort-best/num-96/loc-018?view=grid&Ntt=critical%20race%20theory
As a homeschool parent I discovered most of these materials are being cloaked as social emotional learning... instead of learning body language and social cues, perhaps for ADHD/autistic children you instead find diversity, i
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That's because there is an awful lot of complete nonsense about CRT circulating the internet right now. Looking at your link, I can find not a single resource that is related to CRT in any way.
"Oh, but I search for 'Critical Race Theory' and all this stuff comes up!" Well, that's just how searches work. In your link, it appears that they're matching materials on the word "race". When you search for "free ____ images" on google, do you get only public domain images? Of course not!
The problem is that yo
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No. CRT also includes everything which is built from critical theory/critical race theory as well. Someone learns CRT, builds a diversity framework which includes the same notions that framework is ALSO CRT.
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LOL, okay. Whatever you say. Is CRT also those weird commercials that don't even name the product being advertised?
Maybe the real CRT was the friends we made along the way...
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LOL, okay. So, the best you can manage is a few discounted materials (which appears to be a zip files in a google drive), with click bait titles which don't even match the titles on their respective product images, produced by a single person.
Yeah, that's ... uhh... really something you found there. One doctoral student who typed up a few google docs. The smoking gun.
So... do you have any evidence of her side project being used in any public school? It doesn't look like she was able to find a publisher
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Actually even if you were correct (see my other comment) you are repeating the same lie proponents have been repeating. The racial/antiracism material and fabricated reimagining of US history everyone
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The simple fact is that CRT is not being taught in school. You've been told a very stupid lie. If you want to say something that isn't CRT, is CRT well, we can't really have a meaningful discussion, now can we?
"CRT is long division! They're teaching our kids CRT in elementary school! Everyone panic!"
It's ridiculous.
fabricated reimagining of US history
Actually, you've been fed a fabricated reimagining of US history [npr.org]. We're just finally doing something about it. That's not CRT, that's just reality.
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What is ridiculous is mass regression in the form of using "race" in any fashion in a classroom or as the basis for any classroom material. And yes, that includes word problems designed to highlight liberal notions of systemic racism and 'privilege.'
Leave your post modernist garbage, racist 'anti-racism', and critical theory in dark corners of 4chan where people have an appropriate level of hate and intellect to let you brainwash them into thinking any of that crap has any validity.
Teachin
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making it sound as if his original intention was ill.
Umm... I'm more concerned with his actions than his intentions. Columbus was a pretty bad guy. You know, on account of all the rape and genocide. The Columbus myth we were taught falls squarely into the "fabricated reimagining of US history" that you're pretending that you don't want in school. The reality, of course, is that you actually want kids to be exposed exclusively to the fictional Disney version you learned when you were a kid instead of the truth. Facts about Columbus are not CRT.
Misrepresenting the motivation for the revolutionary war as preserving slavery
It took a
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Welcome to right-wing disinformation. You guys will believe anything.
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Wow, facts used to show you the lie, and you continue with the lie. Who believes the disinformation? You do. It just is Disinformation that is on your side of the isle, so it must be true!
If it isn't being taught, why the fight so hard against banning it? It there is no truth to it, the ban should be meaningless and totally ineffective.
Since there are numerous examples of school systems bragging about teaching it, and so many school systems that have been caught teaching it, it must all be disinformatio
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My son told me that they might be teaching critical race theory at school a few days ago. I did my best to remain objective and not poison his mind with my preconceived biases.
When she came home from school yesterday, she said. "Don't worry dad. They didn't teach that CRT stuff after all."
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That would be funny, except it has absolutely nothing to do with CRT.
This is not to imply there's something inherently wrong with CRT, my only point is that it's not being taught in schools and all the right-wing outrage is over something completely imaginary, like all the fuss over furry liter boxes.
A challenge for anyone outraged about CRT. First, tell me what critical theory is. Then tell me how critical theory has been applied to race. Then tell me why your afraid of that idea. Then show me anythin
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First, tell me what critical theory is.
The "reflective assessment and critique of society and culture to reveal and challenge power structures" (taken from Wikipedia, because it's a reasonable definition).
Then tell me how critical theory has been applied to race.
The challenge of societal power structures as they apply to racial equality when said equality is measured based not on performance of individuals but on the end outcomes.
Then tell me why your afraid of that idea.
It grants an excuse to people to not excel, but to blame their status in life completely on externalities. Including those that were present historically but no longer are.
Ba
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Yeah being white sure was great in this country. Take the Irish, oh wait nevermind. Or the Chinese, hmmm ok bad example. Japanese during WW2...
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Weight loss doesn't need to be a focus for kids but is generally a positive thing and nothing to censor from their world, firearms are also a good thing and any age is fine. Skin bleaching and drug culture are "bad things" so why lump all these things together?
The internet is not your babysitter (Score:1)
You wanted kids, now raise them.
Except the app literally is designed for kids! (Score:2)
You wanted kids, now raise them.
Dude, it's YouTube kids, the special app JUST FOR KIDS. Parent's aren't downloading YouTube or Netflix and complaining about content that's clearly not age appropriate.
Not sure why you had to make a snide comment. Is shitting on parents one of your hobbies?
Are you downloading YouTube kids for your personal viewing and worried they'll censor all the inappropriate content you hope to consume?
Also before you start that stale, tired "in my day..." bullshit, keep in mind, YouTube suggests videos to
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There were no episodes of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where the Foot Clan started cooking meth.
Funnily enough, this reminds me of the cover of "Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue" which was an anti-drug television special feature a large number of Saturday Morning cartoon characters. Michelangelo was actually in the special, but not on the cover of the VHS tape. The favorite theory was that it was intentional because he was obviously a stoner (skater dude, talks like Jeff Spicoli from Ridgemont High, has the munchies all the time)
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We had some wild anti-drug stuff in the 80's and 90's. I always wondered how all these incredibly young kids were able to get hooked-up with such an impressive array of illegal drugs.
I remember an episode of Punky Brewser, where a couple of prepubescent girls in a tree house offered the titular protagonist an impressive variety of illegal drugs. A vile of cocaine one girls calls 'a little nose candy', a mix of pills described as 'uppers and downers', a joint, and some other things I can't recall. The idea
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I'll bet that those 80's anti-drug specials seem so bizarre now because it seems clear now that whoever was producing them didn't really know anything about drugs. From the confused slang to the even more confused economics, it's no wonder drugs won the drug war. "That discount ditch weed you bought with the change you stole from your sister's piggy bank could be secretly laced with PCP! Watch out!" I'd say the writes must have been on something, but they clearly weren't hip to that scene.
The irony there being how many of those child actors ended up with serious drug problems, often well before they became adults.
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"Also, I didn't WANT kids...I just pulled out a half second too late!
No offense but this is an evolutionary glitch, people using the pullout method are highly likely to end up with kids which makes that choice highly selective for poor genetic candidates.
Kewl opinion, bro...love the eugenics-lite (Score:2)
No offense but this is an evolutionary glitch, people using the pullout method are highly likely to end up with kids which makes that choice highly selective for poor genetic candidates.
I don't think there is a non-offensive way of interpreting that. I am not offended. You're some rando on slashdot I don't give a flying fuck what you think about my genetic candidate status...a phrase I usually only hear from white supremacists who like to claim their superiority to darker races, usually from a trailer park or their mom's basement. Really, if your pride is your genetics, that says to me that you don't have many real accomplishments to feel proud of. Successful people never talk about ge
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According to experts 22 out of 100 people (aka 22%) get pregnant who use withdrawl
Stealth pun (Score:3)
Content aimed at gun users
I see what they did there.
The weight loss message is fine (Score:1)
This should not be mixed in with the rest. Losing weight while young is actually a great idea.
I have no idea why they would mix this in with guns and drugs...
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Promoting fitness and healthy food choices makes sense. Weight loss, not so much.
in China or Russia, right? (Score:2)
Socially responsible (Score:2)
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I forgot about this and the loophole kept getting used and became routine for awhile. Separately I began teaching her to read and after the initial course my four year old just churned through t
well.... (Score:1)
how else are they going to learn about drugs and firearms?
Meanwhile, they're worried about "Nazis" (Score:1)
I've been saying this for years about YouTube. They are notorious for not being good at keeping R-rated movie ads off of channels for kids, including little kids. When my son was in pre-school, we got ads for stuff like Pet Semetary during Halloween.
These fucking jokers are concerned about my kid being exposed to Nazis. I can explain "Hitler was a bad man with bad ideas." I cannot explain away the emotional horror of seeing a demon-possessed zombie cat to a child too young to understand reality vs fiction.
S
Clown world, honk, honk (Score:2)
Why not?, 5-8 year olds can learn everything about becoming transgender and how they are oppressors or oppressed.
Then again they can learn all of that stuff in class these days.
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Youtube doesn't promote firearms (Score:2)
...leading to young childeren being shown a ranking of recoil pads
I knew the article was BS just from the claim the Youtube was promoting firearms. I honestly believe the only reason any firearms content is allowed on Youtube is because there's enough demand for such content, it would create a large competitor to Youtube.