Geeks logo

#ElsaGate

Wtf, YouTube?

By Tree CainPublished 6 years ago 2 min read
Like

If you keep up with the news or are a parent you might have heard about this news story popping up about inappropriate content being on YouTube Kids. Basically, people are putting childhood characters such as Elsa and Spiderman into violent and/or sexual situations. Hundreds of disturbing videos all unnoticed for who knows how long on the YouTube Kids app.

People are furious! There are riots on the streets! (Alright, it's not that intense but it was fun to say.) There are Hashtags being thrown around everywhere! Many sites are writing their very own segments about this! Grab your pitchforks and join us!

I have a lot of questions about this topic and I feel like a good place to start with is WTF? What is the point of these videos? Why on earth are people making videos of baby Mickey and Minnie getting drunk? Why do they feel the need to have Elsa being "punished" by her boyfriend? What messed-up mind decided Spiderman needed to spy on Elsa peeing? Also why and how do they know the formula of using the filters to get it onto YouTube Kids? Does hacking the system make them feel superior and accomplished? These disturbing videos even make me cringe and feel downright disgusted with humanity! I don't want my kiddos to see this!

How did this go unnoticed for so long? They block so many things and demonetize YouTubers for some really weird stuff but thousands of these videos went unnoticed. I think they may have had their priorities all wrong! They definitely should have been keeping a much tighter ship, especially for the kids' version of their app.

How can money be so important that you will show this stuff to kids? Because I feel like that has to be the reason these videos were made; nothing else makes sense. These channels have millions of subscribers and billions of watched minutes, which creates revenue and gives them a good sized paycheck. I don't want to believe that people can be this awful. That they just enjoy knowing that our little chickens are getting their growing beautiful minds rotted with filth. This isn't some cartoon character villain rubbing his hands together, laughing manically about what they are doing. There has got to be a reason and money can make people a little crazy.

I'm a very lucky gal. My kids are old enough where I can do stuff with them and no longer have to plop them in front of a screen for some me time. I just send them outside or they can go play together. I mean, they still have their time on YouTube and I do keep my eye out, but if they do find something, I instantly shut that down and prepare for an awkward conversation which, though I hate to admit it, is going to start happening soon. Anyways, back to the topic at hand.

#ElsaGate is spreading like wildfire, people want a stop to all this and they want answers and the YouTube big wigs are rushing around like chickens with their heads cut off to fix it. @Techmeme says:

@Techmeme - "YouTube says it has terminated 270+ accounts, taken down 150K+ videos, removed ads from ~2M videos over past week as it purges content that endangers children" (Noah Kulwin / VICE News)

Do you think this will this be enough to cool the angry mamas and papas for now? Will we be forced to take more action or just have to keep our kids off of YouTube all together? Only time will tell, but I genuinely wish for the best and hope this is all wrapped up soon. We've got enough bad in the world. Let's keep our kids staying kids for a bit longer.

mature
Like

About the Creator

Tree Cain

Baker/Barista, Stage manager.

Mom of two kids, two cats, and one pup. Loves all things nerdy!

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.