On YouTube Kids, Startling Videos Slip Past Filters<br />The account’s description says, “Video created with the purpose of learning and development of children!”<br />Questions sent there were mostly ignored, though the account did reply: “That’s a Cute character and video is a funny story, take it easy, that’s it.”<br />The Super Ares TV account seems to be linked to a number of other channels targeting children with cartoon imitations, based on their similar channel fonts, animation style<br />and Greek mythology-inspired names, from Super Hermes TV and Super Apollo TV to Super Hera TV.<br />Malik Ducard, YouTube’s global head of family and learning content, said<br />that the inappropriate videos were “the extreme needle in the haystack,” but that “making the app family friendly is of the utmost importance to us.”<br />While the offending videos are a tiny fraction of YouTube Kids’ universe, they are another example of the potential for abuse on digital media platforms<br />that rely on computer algorithms, rather than humans, to police the content that appears in front of people — in this case, very young people.<br />Suddenly he cried out, “Mommy, the monster scares me!”<br />When Ms. Burns walked over, Isaac was watching a video featuring crude renderings of the characters from “PAW Patrol,” a Nickelodeon show<br />that is popular among preschoolers, screaming in a car.<br />“We strive,” he added, “to make that fraction even lower.”<br />Holly Hart of Gray, Tenn., said she was recently reading while her 3-year-old daughter was in the room when she noticed<br />that Disney Junior characters in the video her daughter was watching started “turning into monsters and trying to feed each other to alligators.” An image previewing a recommended video showed the characters in a provocative pose.
