Videos on ‘YouTube Kids’ Show “Suicide Instructions”

This is as disturbing as it gets, especially if you have kids.

I have a three year old that we periodically allow to watch videos (usually dinosaur related) on YouTube Kids, a service by YouTube that only features kid friendly material…or so we thought:

A Florida mother said she has found clips on YouTube and YouTube Kids that gave children instructions for suicide https://t.co/VqE7GT9P8x pic.twitter.com/lIMPqYl7Ch

— CNN (@CNN) February 25, 2019

It’s no an accident. Whoever uploaded these videos took care to hide the disturbing videos by splicing them into the middle of actual children’s videos.

I understand that the model of YouTube isn’t to vet every single video uploaded, that’s not how they operate. However, when we are talking about YouTube Kids, maybe more needs to be done to protect from these videos being uploaded in the first place!

While I hope that YouTube steps up their monitoring of these videos, I know the final responsibility ends with me, the parent. I assume the videos on YouTube Kids are safe, but I was wrong. I’ll be watching the content a lot closer from now on.