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YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children

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Re: YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children

#51
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a family friendliness issue causing this, it's an 'advertiser friendliness' one. Anytime an ad was shown on a slightly controversial video, an internet outrage mob would descend on the advertiser saying how dare they provide money to . Advertisers pressured Youtube for ways to advertise only on non-controversial videos. Youtube responded by demonetizing anything even halfway controversial.

> It's not a family friendliness issue causing this, it's an 'advertiser friendliness' one. What's the difference? In my mind those are the same thing.

I watch a lot of video game content that is advertiser friendly (a conclusion I make since I see ads before it), but is not "family friendly."

Re: YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children

#53
post #17

Am I the only person who's thoroughly tired of YouTube attempting to be family friendly? I'm not defending the videos with the kids characters doing sick things, that's NSFL stuff, but the constant focus on family friendly content is killing basically all of the channels I really enjoy watching. I thought YouTube was supposed to be for everyone, not just the same lowest-common-denominator mashed potatoes content you…

Their focus on family friendly content does not affect anything else - it even has its own app, YouTube Kids. This is the correct way to do it. If you are seeing channels die then it's for some other reason than YouTube trying to make a separate kid friendly app.

Well, not quite. Channels are dying because their revenue is going away. That revenue is going away because their videos are unfairly (see following) being flagged as un-monitizable - which boils down to not being family friendly.

I say unfairly, because any number of creators can appeal the demonitization and have all of those videos re-instanted... but re-instatated too late to provide any real monetary value to the creator.

Re: YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children

#54

We used to let our 3 y/o watch youtube. She learned lots of things from there which was amazing. Colors, Numbers, the alphabet; all by the time she was 2. I'm not a teacher by any means so it was awesome to see this happen. Then these weird videos started showing up. We took youtube away for exactly these videos that are mentioned in this link. These are targeting children and it's sick.

This revolting video involving a monkey and a frog has been bugging me for a very long time. I check it regularly (though not watch it) to see if YT has at least age-gated it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVE60zwXx1k

But nope, not yet. Maybe now?

Re: YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children

#55
post #9

It's (un)surprising how fast YouTube responds to this somewhat mild criticism, while holding steady on their radio silence regarding the large amounts of huge creators who are getting demonetized and community strikes against their accounts. Nearly every big channel I watch has posted a video complaining about it in the past 2 months, with many just this week. Gives you some good insight on where their priorities are…

A couple channels I used to enjoy have clearly limited their swearing, probably because they are afraid of losing their livelihood. I just see this as yet another reason to have adblock installed.

Hope you're learning to enjoy cable TV again, folks!

Re: YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children

#56
post #7

Am I the only person who's thoroughly tired of YouTube attempting to be family friendly? I'm not defending the videos with the kids characters doing sick things, that's NSFL stuff, but the constant focus on family friendly content is killing basically all of the channels I really enjoy watching. I thought YouTube was supposed to be for everyone, not just the same lowest-common-denominator mashed potatoes content you…

I subscribe to a bunch of channels (mostly focused around Brazilian jiu-jitsu, powerlifting and video games) and I have not noticed any attempts at "family friendly content" having any impact on those channels. Where are you seeing it?

Gaming channels. Most gaming channels are having serious issues of one sort or another.

One example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe5eODFxwy0

Re: YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children

#57
post #28
post #9

It's (un)surprising how fast YouTube responds to this somewhat mild criticism, while holding steady on their radio silence regarding the large amounts of huge creators who are getting demonetized and community strikes against their accounts. Nearly every big channel I watch has posted a video complaining about it in the past 2 months, with many just this week. Gives you some good insight on where their priorities are…

Creators aren't paying google. Creators are the product.

I was going to say something just like this, only more wordy and less to-the-point. This is perfect.

Re: YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children

#58

We used to let our 3 y/o watch youtube. She learned lots of things from there which was amazing. Colors, Numbers, the alphabet; all by the time she was 2. I'm not a teacher by any means so it was awesome to see this happen. Then these weird videos started showing up. We took youtube away for exactly these videos that are mentioned in this link. These are targeting children and it's sick.

We've had good luck with Netflix for Kids.

Re: YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children

#60
post #8

What I find interesting is when you have parental controls on, and your playing a kids video, the advertisements are not something a kid should be shown.

It reminds me of the surprisingly-high proportion of content available without subtitles/captions. It's 2017 and plenty of people are deaf, and yet the BBC, Netflix, Amazon, etc. regularly pretend this section of their audience doesn't exist. My guess is that is an instance of poor diversity within the team that set the early direction for YouTube. Maybe a team with a higher proportion of parents respresented might h…

I'm sure it's just more hours to them; on something they're trying to get out the door yesterday.
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