A couple of years ago, YouTube launched YouTube Kids which is basically a version of YouTube designed to be kid-friendly, meaning that any weird or inappropriate videos on “regular” YouTube won’t be shown. However it seems that despite YouTube’s best efforts, inappropriate videos have found their way onto YouTube Kids.
This has happened in the past and is happening in recent times, thanks to a report from The New York Times and Medium (via The Verge) in which it documents how bizarre and disturbing videos have managed to sneak past YouTube Kids’ filters. The good news is that YouTube has recognized the problem and is implementing a new policy that will help safeguard kids against such content in the future.
One of those changes is the reporting feature, where if a user flags a video as inappropriate in the main YouTube app and if they’re signed into their account, after reviewing it and if the video is found to be in violation of the new policy, that video will then be automatically blocked from showing up in the Kids app.
The flagged content will also be age-restricted, meaning that if your account says you’re below 18, you won’t be able to see the content. Will this new policy work? YouTube themselves had admitted that given how much content they have to sift through, sometimes certain videos can make it past their safeguards, but hopefully this new policy will help reduce the amount that does.
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