Despite YouTube's protestations to the contrary, minors are confronted with content that can traumatize them or even incite violence and extremism. This is shown by a study by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), in which four fake users aged nine and 14 were created on the video portal for test purposes. Because video games - especially first-person shooters - were listed as hobbies in their profiles, YouTube recommended videos about guns, gun violence, school shootings and serial killers.
Shocking results
“YouTube’s algorithms push male youth interested in video games down a dark road of violence and extremism,” the TTP study’s summary of findings states. These are based on a practical test: The non-profit organization's researchers created four fake user accounts on the portal that were intended to imitate the personalities and interests of nine- and 14-year-old boys. The aim of the campaign was to find out whether there is a connection between YouTube videos and gun violence.
What the scientists discovered is shocking. “YouTube suggested hundreds of videos about guns and gun violence as recommendations. Some of them included instructions on how to convert your weapon into an automatic rifle or showed scenes of school shootings,” they summarize. Among other things, the proposals also included a film about the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. “A large proportion of these videos violate the platform’s own youth protection rules,” said the criticism.
Failure to protect minors
According to the study authors, the results of their practical test are a slap in the face to every child, parent and child protection worker affected. “YouTube claims its video recommendations are safe. In fact, the portal fails when it comes to keeping particularly vulnerable people away from frightening and violent content that can traumatize them or even incite them to violence and extremism,” the TTP experts make clear.
As recently as 2022, figures from Pew Research showed that the Google subsidiary YouTube was the most popular social media platform among children between the ages of 13 and 17. 95 percent of this age group say they use the site heavily. “Despite this enormous popularity among young people, the portal has so far managed to avoid rigorous scrutiny regarding its influence on the development and well-being of teenagers,” the TTP report said.
Source:
Press release
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )