As young children are being tricked into watching inappropriate videos, Youtube is finally taking a stand.
Earlier this year, some parents began to notice that their kids’ favourite films and shows on Youtube weren’t always what they seemed.
A BBC investigation uncovered a trend on the video-sharing platform of upsetting content (including depictions of monsters or violence) being disguised as episodes of programmes such as Peppa Pig and Thomas the Tank Engine and movies like Frozen.
These videos are often able to bypass Youtube’s age restrictions as they don’t contain obscene language or sexual content.
Given how they are animated or edited, they can be hard to tell apart from the real thing, especially for young kids.
Youtube has announced that it will try to tackle the problem by endeavouring to put age restrictions on videos that contain “violence and disturbing imagery” and the “portrayal of harmful or dangerous activities.”
“Earlier this year, we updated our policies to make content featuring inappropriate use of family entertainment characters ineligible for monetisation,” Juniper Downs, YouTube’s director of policy, said in a statement.
“We’re in the process of implementing a new policy that age restricts this content in the YouTube main app when flagged.
“Age-restricted content is automatically not allowed in YouTube Kids.
“The YouTube team is made up of parents who are committed to improving our apps and getting this right.”
