Adults should be careful about what kind of content spreads in the service their children use. The videos are disguised as intended for children.
Many children and young people use the YouTube kids service. YouTube
Internet video service YouTube’s YouTube kids service, which is aimed at children, spreads inappropriate videos for children, which are disturbing even for adults.
The videos are disguised as educational videos, but behind the content something completely unrelated to the topic can be revealed. Security and risk management expert Elisa Kuusama tweeted about it. Kuusama is also active in the Liberal Party.
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– There is traumatizing stuff for adults too, it’s so horrible to think how a child can handle such things, and what, for example, hardcore porn or execution videos do to the developing brain, Kuusama continues.
Thousands of hours of video material are distributed to the service every day.
The service has been pointed out before
The content of the service has also been pointed out before. Operating under the name brand blogger Free N. Hess wrote of the videos they found in the service already in 2019. Among other things Wired wrote about that time.
The videos found by Hess have, among other things, animated shooting scenes that take place in a school environment. In addition to this, the videos also have plans for suicide.
There was also a genuine video of the Pipsa Piglet character, in which the video’s distributor had made a video of Pipsa being tortured by a dentist. The video was not the handiwork of the original creators.
The service has removed the videos and is trying to react to problems quickly, presumably despite this, disguised content can still be leaked into the service.
The means of adults
Parents should monitor their children’s use of the internet, and even services intended for children are not necessarily completely safe.
The Mannerheim Children’s Welfare Association (MLL) recommends that you and your child familiarize yourself with the contents and services together.
– The smaller the child, the more important it is to get to know digital content and services together, MLL head of school cooperation and digital youth work Paula Aalto tells Iltalehte.
In the YouTube kids service after logging in, it is possible to set the settings for what kind of content the child sees. The parent can also check what kind of content the child has watched.
It is also possible to block the channels of the service, if it seems that disturbing content is being spread by the author in question. Aalto says that inappropriate videos should be reported to maintenance immediately so that the content can be removed from the service.
However, if the damage has already happened, the first priority is to talk with the child.
– The most important thing is to talk about scary and distressing experiences with the child.