YouTube app for kids alleged to feature heinous content

YouTube app for kids alleged to feature heinous content

References to pedophilia and drug use are among the allegations.

YouTube, in an attempt to be more inviting to parents and kids, is being accused by two consumer groups of including distributing videos that refer to drug use, sex, pedophilia and child abuse. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received other complaints about the YouTube Kids app just last month.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) both allege that the video-sharing service’s first direct attempt to be more family-accessible has backfired. A video from the two groups outlines their complaints.  The production includes clips snagged from videos that were distributed by YouTube Kids.

The groups charge that the app made videos available to children that included knife juggling, playing with matches, sexual language, profanity, jokes about pedophilia and drug use, advertisements for alcohol and discussions about pornography, family violence and child abuse. Working together, the group forwarded their video to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today.

In a statement, the groups say that Google, the global multimedia company, deceived parents in marketing its app as friendly to children below five years of age. “In reality,” they said, “the app is rife with videos that would not meet anyone’s definition of ‘family friendly.’”

Other complaints to the FTC about YouTube Kids were received last month. The two groups involved in the latest criticism – along with Consumer Watchdog and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, complained about the way advertising was delivered through the app. Specifically, they said online hosts of videos sometimes tried to make sales inside the shows themselves, something they say would be illegal if such shows were broadcast on television instead of the internet. YouTube responded to that earlier complaint, stating its disagreement that “no free, ad-supported experience for kids will ever be acceptable.”

 

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