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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

#331

Post by thomastjeffery »

Cpoll wrote: post #256

Unrelated to the news article, but I'm alarmed that the usual HN balanced-skepticism is largely buried in this thread: Almost no-one has questioned whether these videos are indeed harmful to children. The top comment is a Medium article that sensationalizes these videos to the point where I was afraid the video would destroy my brain a-la Snow Crash. I'm picking up a lot of "please think of the children" and "you wou…

I didn't see any discussion by the article or comments about censorship.

I think you are sensationalizing the article. What exactly is there to be skeptical about? The article simply brought up a point that many of us are unaware of.

The problem is that YouTube is something of a monopoly, and that what is explicitly made for very young children is not what any of us would expect. It's simply important to be aware of that fact.

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

#332

Post by rmdoss »

gizmodo59 wrote: post #301
rmdoss wrote: post #291

Those are very annoying and dangerous. Glad Youtube is doing something. If you have young kids, be careful on what you allow on their devices (ipads, xbox, iphones, etc). Just the other day, I noticed a young kid (~9yo) watching some type of porn on an iPad, while the parents were paying attention the other kid play softball. I told the mom and she freaked out. What I am doing for my own kids lately: -Enable Parental…

I would rather give them something else to do instead of going through so many control measures for internet access (Not saying it should be banned). There are so many things they can learn without internet and so many things they can learn with just computer and no internet too.

Me too. But easier sad, than done. At least for us.

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

#333

Post by dalbasal »

vostrocity wrote: post #252
dalbasal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on who the complainers I’ve seen are, I’m sure that at the very least youtube threw out some baby with bathwater. But that said, their monetisation has not been successful. They do need to make big, hard changes. A lot of what monetisation did was encourage spam, or content quality just above the spam threshold. Meanwhile, patreon (though obviously which a much smaller footprint) seems to encourage the kind of…

I think an interesting question is whether kids raised on this content "barely above the spam threshold" have different cognitive functions and/or appreciation of content later in life. Maybe these kids raised on mass-produced low-quality content will care less about aesthetic integrity or NPR-type content as adults?

If by aesthetic integrity, you mean the quality of production or a more traditional, even and smooth style of film cutting, then that's not what I mean by quality. You can have serious documentary style cutting with crap content or amateur-reality-TV-promo cutting with great content. But I think that on that front, yes. If you grow up on a style, you might like it later too.

What I meant by just above the spam threshold is just a mishmash of content thoughtlessly cut together to match a keyword result, game the "up next" suggestion engine and/or draw clicks through shameless clickbait.

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

#334

Post by captainmuon »

There are so many bad kid's videos on YouTube, and I'm not even talking about the algorithmically created or "Peppa drinks bleach" kinds.

For example, while there are a ton of real Fireman Sam videos, there are also many that are just an endless concatenation of action scenes from different episodes. It goes on for about an hour, instead of the ten minutes of a regular episode. If you take it away from my kid he gets angry, if you don't he'll probably fall over from exhaustion after a while. And in any case I don't want him to vegitate in front of a nonsensical video for so long.

There are also tons of unboxing videos of toys. There are videos where some guy plays with toys and acts out new episodes with his weird voice. You never know if it is for children, or a satire/joke video for adults.

Then there are just videos that are buggy, stop early, have random parts cropped... etc. and are just frustrating.

It would be trivial to hire a couple of students and find and flag all of these videos (though not all mentioned in the posted link). DMCA and copyright would provide an easy mechanism to remove this content. Adult TV shows that are uploaded are removed immediately.

I have a sinister theory about this: This is tolerated by the copyright owners, or at least someone in the content distribution chain. The goal is to frustrate people enough that they will ditch YouTube and buy the DVDs.

I have since started to create a curated list of the good videos, and also moved to a Kodi setup where I can put known good episodes - it helps a lot to control the quantity and increase the quality of what the kid is watching.

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

#335

Post by timthorn »

derefr wrote: post #183
ansible wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard some plausible theories. For a young kid, the world is a strange and unpredictable place. Which means "scary" in some sense. Watching a video (that the kid has seen many times before) is actually comforting. The kid can predict what's going to happen next, and is happy when expectations match reality. There's possibly something similar going on with people on the autistic end of the spectrum, which may exp…

I find rewatching things I still remember the plots of intolerable... when I'm fully awake. When I'm trying to fall asleep , I will almost always put on an episode of a podcast I've heard 500 times. It's more soothing than one of those ambient-noise apps.

Try the Shipping Forecast. Different every night, but just the same each time.

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

#336

Post by nathan_f77 »

microcolonel wrote: post #107
sbjustin wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. She's only allowed on Netflix now. I've seen Sofia 10,000 times.

I never understood how it was possible for little girls to watch the same movie literally hundreds of times, sometimes twice in one day. Some day science will get around to the real mysteries like this. I think I've tried to erase the memories of torture I survived, hearing Horton Hears a Who played most days for almost a year.

This question comes up very often on Reddit. Here's a good answer I read recently: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6d22mv/e...

> Young children love repetition, whether it's watching a video or listening to song lyrics, because it's the best way for them to acquire and master new skills. In order to learn something well, children this age practice it until they get it right, hence the repeated watching.

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

#337

Post by bitwize »

jimmaswell wrote: post #281

There's a subreddit about this called /r/ElsaGate. Some of them feel there's a more sinister meaning to some of the content of these strange videos, like here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ElsaGate/comments/6t754b/thank_you/

Wow, sheesh. That's terrifying, but it makes a whole lot more sense than my pet theory, was that the videos were screening tools for state actors. They would seed YouTube with videos of beloved characters undergoing suffering and violence, and then use analytics to determine who kept watching. The kids who got squicked out would be collateral damage, but the ones who kept watching would be identified as potentially useful psychopaths, and approached to be recruited into black-ops assassination programs from an early age.

To be honest I'm not sure what's worse -- that or the child molester angle.

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

#338

Post by cisanti »

technofiend wrote: post #219
tmaly wrote: 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.

Google's adfilters are broken or can be gamed: I keep getting advertising for a subject I've explicitly banned.

I was searching for UV diodes another day and now I see on mobile ads (Google Adwords) for "Bank notes that pass UV pen tests", so either scam or they sell fake money. I have screenshotted it and I get these ads on reputable sites. I live in poorer country so I guess the bidding fe is not that expensive.

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

#339

Post by cisanti »

joering2 wrote: post #227
hbosch wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one thing when you discovered porn in the 90's at the age of 12, versus being 5 years old and watching Spiderman rape & murder Elsa.

I'm sorry, but how is that difference? Unless I take you wrong, do you claim that a child that watch cartonish spiderman forcing himself on Elsa, will end up child molesters or murderers themselves, then I would love to see some statistics, other that the fact your argument sounds reasonable on its face.

I don't know about rapists and murderers, but very young kids have started to rub against each other and according to my kindergarten teacher, it has exploded and happens a lot more than before. Anecdotal evidence, but if you believe her it doesn't only happen in that specific place. Spiderman shagging Elsa or playing with her tits certainly doesn't make the problem letter.

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

#340

Post by qznc »

slphil wrote: post #221
Danihan wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if genetics are king.

This is true although nobody likes to admit this. Intelligence, including specific subfields of intelligence, is highly heritable, explaining about 70% of variance.

I find 70% oddly specific. Citation?
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