The nightmare videos of childrens' YouTube — and what's wrong with the internet today | James Bridle

Part of the problem is parents leaving their children alone watching this.

I sincerely hope that he wasn’t logged in when he did the research for this, or else his homepage is screwed.

Sadly I was a victim of this I remember I was watching Dora. Everything was fine at first but then it turned into gore and bloody scenes. I remember Dora was killing boots and her family and eating them. I screamed and cried. Then my dad scolded me for watching that video. I was literally a toddler I didn't know anything. I never saw that video again. Then my dad got YouTube kids. It wasn't better. Those videos were still there and I got more and more terrified. I am a teen now and I still have those traumatic videos stuck in my head. Please parents don't give your child a ipad at such a young age like my parents did to me. You can't control what your child watched because it comes out of nowhere. Whoever did these videos are monsters and terrible people for playing around with childrens feelings like that. I recommend giving your child their iPad at a older age so they know what they are doing. If your child wants to see cartoons. You can always get the nick Jr app or put it on tv, but please don't give devices to your child at a young age.

In my household we have a “No Youtube..period” rule. At first we thought it was harmless - after all we were very strict to make sure our child was watching kid appropriate content. Before long our 4yr old became interested in watching “open toys” and “family play”videos. An almost immediate change in behavior took place. He stopped wanting to actually have real family play time & anytime the Screen Time limit was up, he would throw the most uncharacteristic, emotional bloody-murder-tantrum I have ever witnessed. It would last well into the rest of the day. Needless to say, it was eye opening enough that we dramatically changed our Screen Time rules. YouTube is OUT! In fact no more 3min instant gratification vids anywhere (prime has them too). We lean toward learning vids like Leap Frog Reading, a limited time period of his favorite cartoon, shows that teach character (like Owlegories or Veggietales) or we’ll splurge on a full length, parent-pre-screened family movie. Bottom line, every parent should watch this Ted talk and take it seriously. I think there’s something to the dopamine release kids get w/these sorts of vids. I’m not so sure screen time is so good for us either - we’re even considering getting rid of the TV altogether. Save yourself a lot of headaches, turn off the TV, pick up a book and start your kids on a path to a love for reading.

Rule #1 of YouTube: turn off Autoplay.

"These videos are like crack for kids" Seems about right

People don't let their children play in the street anymore because they are afraid they could get hurt. Stranger danger we've been told. It drives me nuts because the same parents are happy as long as their kids are inside on a computer. Give your kid access to the Internet and you are literally giving every pervert and freak show access to your child. Not to mention what constant access and not playing outside does to them physically, emotionally and intellectually.

I got mad at my parents when I was a little kid for keeping me off of the internet. But now, I can’t thank them more.

I was born in the first decade of the 2000s and I grew up with Geronimo Stilton, Pokemon and Doc McStuffins Not very intellectual, but far better than Surprise Eggs.

Me: eating food peacefully Kid at the corner of the restaurant: watching these vids at max volume

As a new teacher, I see how YT Kids has absolutely demolished children. There is a depressing amount of kids who cannot be reasoned with because their upbringing has been from people trying to get quick views by producing total trash. Kids are, by no exaggeration, walking-talking memes. And the big ick did not help at all. This week was a nightmare and I’m still trying to recover.

One of the best TED talks ever, and he wasn't kidding when he talked about Facebook and YouTube workers who have to vet these videos being severely traumatized by the work. That's a reality unless you are of a certain very twisted sort of mentality. It will break you.

"to automatically generate a kid's worst nightmares" that hit home

Never thought I would be looking at Hitler dancing around in a bikini in a TEDTalk

it's absolutely terrifying how people who don't have kids care more about children's safety and development than actual parents

I'm so grateful that I was grown up with supervised Internet access, before the creation of YouTube Kids, and only watched official episodes of children cartoons.

Something I'm noticing is that none of the people commenting are parents, we're the older siblings worried about our younger siblings. Just because we're not the parents, doesn't mean we can't help.

The colour palletes used on these animations are giving me a migraine.

It’s part of the grooming process. Subjecting children to horror and disturbing images and concepts opens them up to larger boundary breaches and essentially preps them psychologically for abuse. It is sick, twisted, and calculated. But by whom? Who is fueling these channels? That’s the question.

You can tell this guy knows what he is talking about, and that he did not just searched this up for five seconds. I respect this guy.