YouTube’s Recommendations Are Leading Kids To Gun Videos
According to Tech Transparency Undertaking (TTP), a non-profit compliance watchdog, YouTube recommends “pushing boys fascinated about video video games to scenes of faculty shootings, directions on easy methods to use and regulate guns” and different gun-centric content material.
They modeled two nine-year-olds who both loved video games, especially first-person shooters. The accounts were identical, except that one clicked on YouTube-recommended videos, while the other ignored the platform’s suggestions.
The account that clicked on YouTube suggestions was soon flooded with graphic school shooting videos, tactical weapon training videos, and how-to guides for building fully automatic firearms. One video showed a girl of primary school age holding a gun; another showed the shooter firing a 50-caliber handgun at a dummy head filled with blood and brains just like a real one. Many videos violate YouTube’s own violent or gory content policy.
The results show that despite YouTube’s rules and content moderation efforts, the platform is failing to stop the spread of scary videos that can hurt vulnerable children or send them down the dark paths of extremism and violence.
