Young children are watching a wide range of videos on YouTube that are full of advertisements, sometimes have violent footage and offer little educational value, according to a report from academics and Common Sense Media, an advocacy group.
YouTube is a juggernaut in children’s media, and viewership has shot up during the pandemic. But the company has struggled to police the videos that are being watched, even after investing deeply in ways to better moderate children’s content once it became a political problem.
The new report argues that YouTube hasn’t done enough. Researchers collected more than 1,600 videos from 191 parents that their children, all younger than 8, watched on YouTube’s main site this year. Among the findings: Adverts were present on 95% of the videos in the study. A fifth of the ads were categorized as age inappropriate — a bourbon commercial on a nail painting video for girls; another ad, during a video game clip, that asked, "Should the U.S. deport illegal immigrants?”