Study: Google's YouTube Algorithm Recommends Graphic and Violent Content to Boys 9-14

A recent study suggests that YouTube’s recommendation algorithm may expose children to graphic and violent gun-related content, despite the platform’s content moderation policies. Researchers created profiles for typical nine-year-old and 14-year-old boys, finding that the accounts that followed YouTube’s recommended videos were faced with an onslaught of violent content including videos related to school shootings.

The study also showed that similar videos frequently appeared again with slightly different names after being taken down for breaking YouTube’s rules. This calls into question YouTube’s ability to protect young users from harmful content and the effectiveness of its content moderation. Ars Technica reports that Google’s content moderation process has made yet another error, this time flagging horror videos as “for kids” and preventing creators from changing the age range to 18 and up. One example comes from the horror series Local58TV, created by Kris Straub.

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YouTube’s recommendations send violent and graphic gun videos to 9-year-olds, study findsYouTube is great at sending users videos that it thinks they'll like based on their interests. But new research shows that the site's powerful algorithms can also flood young users with violent and disturbing content. The nonprofit Tech Transparency Project created YouTube accounts mimicking the behavior of young boys with an interest in video games. The site soon began recommending videos featuring graphic imagery of school shootings and tactical firearm training to users as young as nine. YouTube says it works hard to protect children, but the researchers say the material could traumatize vulnerable kids or send them down dark roads of radicalization and extremism.
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