KIDEODROME: scary "Kid's Youtube" algorithms, fringe programming, insert conspiracy theory here

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xxp right - I just wonder how many. like a video with 100k views, how many of those were children? I wouldn't be surprised if the actual number was very very small.

frogbs, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:06 (six years ago) link

So essentially your point is... It's not that bad? I'm trying to understand your stance on here, besides playing down the effect it can have on kids (which I agree on, but it's not the whole story here)

Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:06 (six years ago) link

*on this

Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:07 (six years ago) link

my point is that content-wise it doesn't seem that horrific, though the idea of technology subverting parental control is novel and creepy, however, I also feel like this is happening at a time where parents have/want more control over their children than in previous generations.

sarahell, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:09 (six years ago) link

i'm creeped out by this too but it's funny that we_on_the_left suddenly have a mass child abuse theory of our very own, except being on the left it's not individual jews and catholics that are doing it (in a metaphor for their secret perversion of everything) but the architecture of the system itself (in a metaphor for its open etc)

difficult listening hour, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:11 (six years ago) link

are these all animated/cartoons, or are ones where people are editing in footage of actual rape, murder, or concentration camp victims or similar?

sarahell, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:13 (six years ago) link

content wise these are way more horrific than old cartoons.

akm, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:14 (six years ago) link

I guess for me, growing up, the news and real things like dying in a nuclear war were more disturbing than violent/nihilistic cartoons

sarahell, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:14 (six years ago) link

well for me too but this is a step beyond. this is devoid of story, devoid of anything...it's just random images of characters with heads swapped out for meat zombies, stabbing or raping each other, etc. I know you and I grew up with things like Eraserhead and the Butthole Surfers and shit but not when we were like, 2.

akm, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:16 (six years ago) link

it's like a great empty chasm of violent nothing. maybe it's the perfect entertainment for the US, maybe it's what we deserve.

akm, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:17 (six years ago) link

the algorithmic CGI stuff is bad, but jfc those Toy Freaks videos

that guy needs to be in jail

Number None, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:17 (six years ago) link

I don't remember any media content from when I was 2, except for things like general color schemes

sarahell, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:17 (six years ago) link

Please tell me Sara is doing D- trolling instead of expressing F+ opinions

"the fgti incident?" (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:19 (six years ago) link

Please tell me that Whiney just vomited out the details of his post and didn't actually believe the details made sense/were realistic.

sarahell, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:21 (six years ago) link

this is written by the guy who made "tickled"

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/21-11-2016/hello-my-name-is-ally-how-children-are-being-exploited-by-youtube-predators/

goole, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:21 (six years ago) link

are these all animated/cartoons, or are ones where people are editing in footage of actual rape, murder, or concentration camp victims or similar?

― sarahell, Wednesday, November 8, 2017 9:13 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Gotcha Sarahell. On the above, the ones that disturb me most are those with actual children - I've seen both Russian and American ones - being made to act out a 'story' that borders on, or veers into adult fetish/violent fantasies. Kids are acting out things probably not knowing what they are doing. They're being used. The scat videos, acted out as a pun or mere potty training, a child acting she's Elsa and is pregnant and is getting aborted ("that's a baaad baby in your belly! We need to get rid of bad baby!" with a cheerful tune underneath... For kids it reads: bad needs to go away. For adults: fuck if I know. Letting a kid lie there pretending to be pregnant, hand reaching under skirt but 'innocent' enough to not be offensive in the literal sense).

It's the ones with children acting, where they seem to believe they are acting in a story whole for adults that same story is a very different one, preying on them, are the worst. And this is a genre, apparently.

Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:23 (six years ago) link

You started out this thread with, like, "parents should just have their full time nannies take their kids to art class and hiking adventures" and have now gone into "2 year olds are dumb, they won't really remember watching IRON MAN SHITS IN DORA THE EXPLORERS MOUTH FOR TWO HOURS HD"

"the fgti incident?" (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:24 (six years ago) link

xp to sara

"the fgti incident?" (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:24 (six years ago) link

For sure dying in a nuclear war is super disturbing, however another disturbing thing is toddlers watching hour-long videos packed with subtly sexual/violent imagery to a jaunty soundtrack of laughter and clapping.

It would be great for kids if their lives were so full of interaction and enrichment that they didn't discover YouTube until they were 12 or whatever, but sadly some kids don't have ideal upbringings. My gf works with vulnerable young adults, many of whom are single mothers. She visited one client last week whose daughter was watching one of these videos when she arrived.

Blandford Forum, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:24 (six years ago) link

yeah just let little kids watch anything, they won't remember it

brimstead, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:25 (six years ago) link

(sarcasm)

brimstead, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:25 (six years ago) link

Sara I dunno how much of this you watched but if you go down the rabbit hole far enough this stuff very much gets to be more than just "cartoonish" violence. the stuff linked in the OP is very tame, even that really strange video at the end. it gets much, much worse.

frogbs, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:26 (six years ago) link

"parents should just have their full time nannies take their kids to art class and hiking adventures"

lol, this is some OI MATES BLOOD SAUSAGE garbage take on what I actually said. I'd fp you, but it's actually so hilariously wrong, I'd regret if you got banned again.

sarahell, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:26 (six years ago) link

like I definitely read that thinking "c'mon, this isn't THAT bad" and figuring Bridle was just exaggerating until I found that he very much was not

frogbs, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:27 (six years ago) link

it's just random images

I remember when Teletubbies first aired, the creepy this was that they were reaching this infant audience with the repetition and non-linear behavior that absolutely connect with how a baby perceives the world. This is taking that and kind of crossing it with Manga and post-Soviet nihilism and SEO.

Eazy, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:28 (six years ago) link

*the creepy thing

Eazy, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:29 (six years ago) link

can someone just link the really bad ones bc i did some searching last night and nothing approached videodrome levels of horror

Mordy, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:29 (six years ago) link

like link to IRON MAN SHITS IN DORA THE EXPLORERS MOUTH FOR TWO HOURS HD bc i have a feeling whiney is just making shit up but if he's not i'd like to know

Mordy, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:30 (six years ago) link

Since economic factors play no part in this, I'll assume Sara's Oakland is a luxurious place where women use their 24 months of paid maternity leave to take their kids to art exhibits of Xenomorphs 69ing

"the fgti incident?" (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:30 (six years ago) link

xp cool but can I request like an hxxp instead of a direct hotlink for that?

sleeve, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:31 (six years ago) link

we're talking sitting at the breakroom table drawing on the backs of junk mail and misprinted documents with pencils and ballpoint pens -- or reading a book you can get for free from the library -- or like, running back and forth around the room, playing catch with a stuffed toy --- these are all very very expensive, exclusive things that only affluent white ppl can afford to have their kids do

sarahell, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:31 (six years ago) link

@Mordy, check some of vids in the Dutch Medium post I linked to (some have been deleted, most haven't)

Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:31 (six years ago) link

Mordy I understand idle curiosity but seriously why give them the clickz

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:32 (six years ago) link

i gave up on the "don't give them the clicks" thing a long time ago i just give everyone the clicks i don't care what the fuck they stand for

Mordy, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:33 (six years ago) link

oh you

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:33 (six years ago) link

but thx i'm looking at the Dutch Medium post (i had avoided it before bc i don't speak Dutch) and the screenshots are illuminating xxp

Mordy, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:33 (six years ago) link

"why don't these people who work 16 hours a day for $7.50 an hour just GO TO THE LIBRARY MORE" is the ilx hipster version of "If I was a poor black child, I'd learn to code and watch Ted talks"

"the fgti incident?" (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:34 (six years ago) link

have you ever even been in a library Whiney. I assure you there are a shit ton of poor people there.

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:34 (six years ago) link

This video does some digging into the Hey Kids! channel. Fascinating but v creepy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B1sRPwK248

barbarian radge (NotEnough), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:35 (six years ago) link

well the thing is there's like 100 hours of Sesame Street videos for free on Youtube so it's not like you either pay for something or go down this rabbit hole

frogbs, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:36 (six years ago) link

xposts

Children don't choose how to be parented tho, so it was be great if those with depressed or damaged or shitty or whatever parents were able to watch nice things like their better-off friends get to watch without it morphing into something sad/violent/degrading that they can't properly process.

Blandford Forum, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:37 (six years ago) link

No, not really. lots of poor children get books from libraries and read them. Some of them have libraries in their schools and classrooms. But let's be completely patronizing to the underclass, and assume that they are totally stupid and free of agency, and have absolutely no support systems.

sarahell, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:37 (six years ago) link

beware the dutch medium post gets really wacky and outlandish but there is plenty there mentioned that is disturbing

marcos, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:38 (six years ago) link

there's this great PBS app that's free and just runs indefinitely PBS content and if you have an iPad already you can def use that instead of youtube.

Mordy, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:39 (six years ago) link

that's good info, thanks

sleeve, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:39 (six years ago) link

yeah there's a bunch of shit like that. It seems to me like this is really only an issue for parents handing their toddlers devices unsupervised. And those people exist and some of them are probably desperate and unable to properly guide their children, others are probably just stupid idiots. I'm sure it's a rich tapestry.

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:41 (six years ago) link

xp to self The video gets a bit weird and conspiratorial near the end (the channel usually covers youtube horror games and the such) but its still kinda germane.

barbarian radge (NotEnough), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:43 (six years ago) link

My kid’s primary tablet is one of those Amazon Fire Kid’s tablet. It only has Amazon prime kids content on it, nothing user generated. I give her free reign over it though, the only think I block is Veggie Tales. It is interesting to see what she discovers and what she gravitates towards.

Jeff, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:43 (six years ago) link

And in the UK we have CBeebies god bless it.

But the point is valid: for parents who are looking for alternatives to YouTube that won’t put deeply questionable (at best) stuff in front of their kids during screen time, way too many of those alternatives are pay-for.

xp I agree with the “kids shouldn’t be left unsupervised” but at the same time I’ve totally had YouTube on while I am in the shower in the past (no longer) and also think it is deeply shitty of Google to just say “well, you know, under 13s shouldn’t even be on there you know, we blame the parents”.

stet, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:45 (six years ago) link

@Mordy, some examples. Other ppl: don't click.

FROZEN ELSA vs WORLD'S LARGEST GUMMY WORM w/ Spiderman vs Joker Candy & Poo Colored Balls

Frozen Elsa GUMMY TONGUE PRANK! w/ Spiderman vs Joker Bad Baby Hulk Gumball - Superheroes IRL Dismembered body parts, like a bloody arm, being used to beat up Spiderman.... m'kay...

Pregnant Frozen Elsa Gives Birth to Baby 👶 Real Life Superheroes Fun Movie (real child dressed like elsa calls 'spiderman', he arrives, cuts out her baby. Later on a 'pregant spiderwoman' has a child, at 8.20, and it's smudged w/ lipstick, apparently they find it an ugly child or whatever etc)

Spiderman & Boy Misha vs Scary KILLER CLOWN w/ Superheroes in real life

Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 21:47 (six years ago) link


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