[astalwick]

We removed the youtube app from our iPad, because our 4 year old was starting to get too deep into these.

There's a lot of great stuff on Youtube for kids (genuinely, whole-heartedly, terrific stuff; I was amazed), but there's also a lot of very, very weird and sexualized and violent content. Targeted at young children. And unfortunately, the 'recommended' sidebar is a little bit too eager in sending kids down those paths.

I see some comments comparing it to 'video games ruining society' and 'violent cartoons'. No, it is not at all the same thing. I have no problem handing the ipad to my son and allowing him to select a show on Netflix. Youtube crossed my 'wtf creepy' threshold a few too many times.

[Fricken]

It's disturbing to see our id reflected back at us in the behavior of our children, but I remember playing with action figures. There was the run of the mill blood, guts and violence, but when the girls toys came out all kinds of freaky stuff went down.

As we get older we compartmentalize, but kids won't hesitate to mix and match potty humour, violence, and sexuality in their role play. It's surprising these videos exist, but it's not surprising that they're popular.

[simulate]

Did you replace it with the YouTube Kids app? https://kids.youtube.com/

YouTube Kids does a good job of filtering content inappropriate for children.

[nonsince]

The difference is between art which is seen as "too adult" being said to ruin society (like movies/games), which generally aren't that bad, and content which is specifically targeted at exploiting children's mental weaknesses for monetary gain. I don't think they're "ruining society", but it's definitely gross and something we should fight if at all possible