Jessy Edwards  |  April 7, 2021

Category: Legal News

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Youtube Kids is being probed into over potential harmful content.

Federal lawmakers have launched an investigation into YouTube Kids, saying children are being served up endless harmful or non-educational content, and being bombarded by advertisers.

In a Tuesday letter to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, a house subcommittee said it would be seeking documents and information from the video sharing company after receiving “concerning reports about content quality and the impact of extended screen time on children’s development.”

The Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, part of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, is looking into potentially predatory advertising practices at YouTube Kids, chair of the subcommittee Rep. Raja Krishnamoorth wrote. 

He said the company has not done enough to protect children from people trying to sell them products online, in an apparently endless stream of autoplaying videos.

One research team had found almost half of videos viewed by children eight and under featured or promoted products for them to buy, the letter says. Researchers found only four percent of videos appeared to have developmentally appropriate content.

“This analysis paints a picture of a wasteland of vapid, consumerist content, such as ‘toy unboxing’ videos, ‘toy play’ videos, and videos of people playing video games,” the subcommittee said in its letter.

YouTube Kids has likely seen an increase in child users during the pandemic, with millions of American kids stuck home while schools were closed or taking part in remote-learning.

The subcommittee said YouTube Kids could be a useful tool to pacify and entertain children.

“However, YouTube appears to be exploiting children by serving them a non-stop stream of low-quality, commercial content. More must be done to protect children from exposure to marketing and too much screen time.”

The subcommittee asked YouTube to provide it with pages of data to paint a clear picture of what kind of content the channel is serving kids, and how it is monetizing it. 

In a laundry list of information requested, the subcommittee asked for information on how YouTube screens content uploaded to its Kids platform, with lawmakers saying the company doesn’t seem to be doing enough to protect children from dangerous content. 

It pointed to one example of a video that contained instructions on how to commit suicide. The subcommittee said the video remained online eight months after it was reported. 

Krishnamoorthi said the low-level of content probably comes down to YouTube’s monetization model. 

“I believe that may be ascribable to the advertisement-based business model and reliance on free uploads of user-generated videos without adequate quality control,” he wrote in the letter. 

“YouTube profits from this disservice of children with more paid ads and more corporate revenue.”

The letter comes after YouTube and its parent company Google agreed in 2019 to pay a record $170 million to settle allegations by the Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General that YouTube illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent. At the time, YouTube agreed not to target advertising to children on its main platform.

In December last year, the Federal Trade Commission voted to move forward with an investigation into the business of social media and how it relates to consumers’ personal data. 

The commissioners are moving forward with a formal investigation into nine social media companies — including YouTube — with aims to sift out particulars on user personal data collection, how that data is housed, and how they use it to advertise, in addition to the influence their products and services have on children, according to an FTC statement on the order

Do you feel comfortable letting your child watch YouTube Kids? Let us know in the comments! 

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9 thoughts onLawmakers Probe Into YouTube Kids ‘Wasteland’, Citing Content Fears Including Suicide Advice

  1. Ivory says:

    YouTube kids and YouTube are riddled with content made by grown adults that’s suggested for kids. I’ve blocked multiple accounts and click not interested on so many videos and yet the algorithm still set on recommending these videos to my kid. Even when I block an account their videos still seem to make in the recommended section.

  2. Lisa Pieretti says:

    A lot of their sugested videos are inappropriate in soooooo many ways, sexually, violence etc. My 10 yr old child was actually wetting the bed for the first time in his life from watching a young you tuber playing video games. I didn’t realize that was the reason until I asked Google why my 10 yr old would suddenly start peeing the bed and one of the very first videos that came up in response was the same YouTube gamer my kid watched everyday in a weird video about bed wetting. I immediately made him stop watching that gamer and he hasn’t wet the bed since. Please add me

  3. Jason Brown says:

    Add me

  4. Lynette Bouie says:

    Add me please

  5. Catherine A Swingle says:

    Add me please

  6. Jeannette Martinez says:

    Please add me

  7. Liberty Bryant says:

    I have problems with my son on the internet period and YouTube, I go through his history and all negative….

  8. Kyle bluth says:

    No I don’t add me

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