While Google had just recently ungraded the kid-focused and stripped down version of YouTube, YouTube Kids, including addition of several new features designed to reflect the app’s aging user base, recent reports doesn't sound good for the media streaming platform.
The controversy is surrounding how the tech giant's algorithms and AI features, could allow troubling videos to get past its filters on an app designed primarily for youngsters.
The report credited to The New York Times, pinpointed a dark side to YouTube Kids, with a video showing Mickey Mouse in a pool of blood while Minnie looks on in horror. While another video, has a claymation version of Spider-Man urinating on Elsa, the princess from "Frozen."
As those ain't anything to worry about, then comes “PAW Patrol,” a Nickelodeon show that is popular among preschoolers, screaming in a car. The vehicle hurtled into a light pole and burst into flames.
The 10-minute clip, “PAW Patrol Babies Pretend to Die Suicide by Annabelle Hypnotized,” was a nightmarish imitation of an animated series in which a boy and a pack of rescue dogs protect their community from troubles like runaway kittens and rock slides. In the video Isaac watched, some characters died and one walked off a roof after being hypnotized by a likeness of a doll possessed by a demon.
Albeit, the offending videos are just a tiny fraction of YouTube Kids’ universe, they are typically an instance of abuse on digital media platforms that rely on computer algorithms, to filter the content that appears in front of users, most especially young people.
YouTube, however have tagged the content as "unacceptable," but said its distribution isn't rampant.
Meanwhile, for parents who are concerned about what their kids are watching on YouTube Kids, there are additional parental controls to limit what the kids view, allowing to block specific videos or channels and turning off search.
