Are YouTube Videos Curated For Children Actually Kid-Friendly?
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Back in 2017, the term ‘Elsagate’ gained traction. It described inappropriate content on the popular video sharing site YouTube that would use well-loved children’s characters to attract a young audience. You could often find well-known characters such as Elsa (hence the term ‘Elsagate’) from “Frozen,” “Jack Frost” and “Spiderman” in these videos that would flood the website. Although this content included scenes, thumbnails, graphics, and plots that could easily be rated at bare minimum PG-13, or even R, the beloved children’s characters would plaster those videos and channels with vibrant colors. This would attract an audience whose brains have barely developed, and can hardly tell right from wrong. At their young age, they absorb information, whether good or bad, like a sponge, especially if it includes topics they love. This combined with the subjects unsuitable for their age all over ‘Elsagate’ content creates a situation that is only destined for disaster.
However, in November of 2017, YouTube took action against these predatory channels by mass-terminating and demonetizing them. Despite this, it was inevitable that it would be near-impossible to remove all of them, especially since that genre of content had spread so wide and far. These channels would still continue to exist and pander to children, but they were forced to adapt under YouTube’s watchful eye.
Even though the phenomenon of ‘Elsagate’ was most rampant seven years ago, its spirit still lives on to this day, through ‘content farms’ (YouTube channels that focus on quantity over quality on a large scale, and make views and money through making videos centering around whatever is trending) and channels catered towards young children, with vibrant colors and fast pacing destroying their attention spans. When The Amazing Digital Circus’ pilot episode was released, it received extreme popularity from those of all ages, including those who were very young. Due to this, many ‘content-farm’ YouTube channels rushed to flush out animations with its characters in inappropriate scenarios, and would make the thumbnails vibrant in order to attract viewers, so that it may pop out to a child’s eye.
When COVID-19 hit, tons of people were being laid off left and right, and were forced to find work online. A job that became popular was becoming a social media influencer, which included owning a YouTube channel. Content like ‘Elsagate’ was very cheap and quick to produce, and guaranteed to attract a lot of young viewers. Minecraft was the popular and trendy thing at the time, so with the three spirits of ‘Elsagate,’ money, and newfound opportunity at their side, they would create Minecraft videos clearly pandering to children, with topics that should clearly not be presented to them. This kind of content would get millions of views, which would then lead to multiple articles and videos stating how it was dangerous for kids, as a warning sign to parents and older siblings. However, compared to the millions of young children already immersed in the world of the new ‘Elsagate,’ it was already too late. The content is created specifically so that it can be addictive, which in itself is used by many other creators in all forms, but it is a clear issue when it is used to spread topics unfit for young children, for young children.
YouTube Shorts is also short form, fast paced content that is easily accessible to young viewers with a tap of a button. Like the rest of YouTube, ‘Elsagate’ can be found without much effort, especially if you’re a little kid who was already watching videos meant for children. Since YouTube recommends videos based on your previous watch history, going onto YouTube Shorts will only show even faster paced videos, made to hook kids’ attention to make profit. Of course, there’s also the topics that shouldn’t be shown to children at such a young age.
Even if you pledge to make sure that your younger sibling, cousin, or other child that may be vulnerable to ‘Elsagate’ content, it is practically impossible to rid them of it forever. You might be making sure that they only watch videos like episodes of “Peppa Pig,” or your favorite childhood YouTubers such as CookieSwirlC. However, due to the sheer popularity of ‘Elsagate,’ it will appear on their YouTube homepage at some point or another, especially since they’re already watching videos made for kids. You won’t be able to supervise what they watch 24/7, and if they really enjoy consuming content from YouTube, at some point or another, they’ll probably end up watching it without supervision, even if you have rules against it. Once they watch one ‘Elsagate’ video, YouTube will receive the automated signal that they had enjoyed it, since they had gone through all the effort to tap on the video and watch it. Due to this, YouTube will only recommend more and more, until the child in question’s watch history is stuffed full with content parading as “kid-friendly.”