This is a response to this article that explains the sort of terrifying content on Youtube that is targeted at children.
Prior to reading it, I did have some knowledge about these so-called “children’s videos” that show gore, horror, and unexplainably bizarre content while hiding under the guise of beloved children’s characters, e.g. Elsa from Frozen.
What I find most interesting about the article is the deep dive into these videos that may explain how this trend started and how it has evolved into its current state.
I won’t regurgitate exactly what I’ve read, however I will explain one insight that I found both profound and horrifying.
Children’s videos on Youtube have the type of content you would expect to find there. Kid friendly videos featuring their favourite characters doing charming and safe things, typically alongside nursery rhymes. For example, compilations and clips of Peppa the Pig.
Someone realized that kids love animations and nursery rhymes. They leveraged reusable animation assets to pump out as many of those type of videos as they could, while throwing in as many keywords as possible to attract viewership and manipulate Youtube algorithms.
Which seems to be harmless. Until somewhere along the way, people began to do this, however with gore, horror, and disembodiment. That meant there was mass production of animated children’s videos that were absolutely not okay for children to watch.
However, it doesn’t end there. If it stopped at animated videos, then that would be fine. Except it’s not, because somewhere in the world, these kinds of videos are being produced with real life actors. Real life children. Although of course the gruesomeness of these videos is milder than their animated counterparts, the shock and trauma caused by these videos are still the same.
Thankfully, Youtube has been tackling this problem so hopefully they aren’t *that* visible unless someone goes around intentionally looking for them.
But it makes me wonder, what is the goal of the people who develop and distribute these shocking and traumatic children’s videos? If the goal was just to earn revenue, then surely it wouldn’t be necessary to damage the mental wellbeing of children too, now would it? Or perhaps it’s because featuring shocking thumbnails work as better clickbait for kids? Who knows.
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