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posted by
Fnord666
on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:31PM
from the serious-mental-health-issues dept.
from the serious-mental-health-issues dept.
Tips for committing suicide are appearing in children's cartoons on YouTube and the YouTube Kids app.
YouTube Kids is theoretically a curated collection of videos that are safe for kids. Apparently, someone forgot to tell YouTube/Google that. Sure, YouTube probably has some butt covering clause in their EULA. That doesn't excuse such an oversight, though. It's very easy to see overworked, stressed parents, giving their kids access to YouTube/YouTube Kids. Kids have enough to deal with, without having to deal with grown-ups twisted thoughts. This seems more like insidious minds at work to me. What do you think?
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Suicide Instructions Spliced into Kids’ Cartoons on YouTube and YouTube Kids
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Nadia Comaneci, simple perfection.
-- '76 Olympics
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Apparition on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:43PM (9 children)
It makes me sad how many parents today give their children (as young as two years old) a tablet or phablet to play with just to shut them up and get them out of their hair. Family members of mine do it all the time. Then they are later shocked and appalled to find what they've been letting babysitting their children.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:57PM (2 children)
It's the trial by fire.
Kids from the social media generation will grow up to be cynical but somewhat grounded individuals, brainwashed and/or entitled freaks, or something in between. The ones that turn out OK will outcompete the others (hopefully).
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:55PM (1 child)
That's true of every generation; you can change the term 'social media' to whatever was the thing the parents didn't understand in that era.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 27 2019, @04:26PM
I think we both know that it's different this time.
The web has it all. It's a medium that allows kids to absorb all kinds of information and propaganda. At the same time, kids are uploading their own stupid mistakes, hopefully being ignored but potentially going viral.
If they don't have filters, or can get around filters, or can use a friend's computer or a semi-filtered one at the public library, then a kid can see all sorts of stuff. They can go down the rabbit hole.
And that's before you take into account claims such as "attention spans are getting shorter".
I don't think social media and the web are going to ruin all kids. But it will ruin enough of them for us to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:07PM (1 child)
so pay your fucking taxes so that parents can get parental leave and not need to work 12 hour days.
if you had your own kids, you should know very well that nobody can judge a parent except for their partner.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:09PM
Why would paying taxes mean parents get parental leave? There is no necessary or sufficient connection between the two.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday February 27 2019, @01:07AM (1 child)
And when that gadget gets taken away, those little fuckers start screaming and whining. Even worse, the people I know hand their own phones over to the kids to shut them up. And the second they learn how to use YouTube, it's all over.
There's a reason why people like Bill Gates don't let their kids have gadgets.
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:38AM
Yep. The only gadgets I would ever let children of mine have would be an eReader like the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite or Kobo Clara around the age of ten, and a dumb phone when they're around thirteen.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday February 27 2019, @06:53AM
We've got a cheap no-name tablet where the wi-fi's borked. All the apps need to be side-loaded on (reverse-tethering helps too), but we know there's nothing there except what we put there.
There's still the toddler rage at having to stop using it, but ours does that when it's time to come in from the garden too!
(Score: 2) by SunTzuWarmaster on Wednesday February 27 2019, @08:01PM
With all due respect - shut the hell up. Here are some things that you might not have considered:
1 - You are seeing a brief snapshot. As an example, I gave my kid the youTube Kids babysitter at a Thanksgiving event. 5% of total event. Only after cranky, and well past bedtime.
2 - There isn't anything fundamentally wrong with cartoons. Did you watch cartoons on Saturday morning? My kid watches Mr. Roger's Neighborhood while she eats breakfast on the weekend. Digital content is not wholly bad. Academically, exposure to language and a diversity of language is among the best things you can do for a developing brain.
3 - It is one of the earliest forms of reward. My 2 year old really enjoys cartoons, praise, toys, and candy. She gets candy for potty training. She gets cartoons, toys, and praise for good behavior. She gets deprived of these things for bad behavior. If you never give them things they like then you cannot take them away as punishment.
3.1 - OBVIOUSLY you should never give them cartoons because they are acting up. You would only do that if you wanted them to act up more frequently...
4 - There needs to be space for boredom in a kids life. Digital life is distracting enough without parents making it worse. Use sparingly. Keep kids bored.
Obviously you should monitor the children's content. YTKids actually does a decent job of this. DFTube is an amplifier, so they don't go switching the content constantly. Subscribing to channels (Mr. Rogers, Daniel Tiger, Blippi, Bubble Guppies, Barney, etc.) is also a solid form of combat against bad actors - allowing content only from trusted sources.