[mchahn]

The article did nothing to explain the motivation for making sick videos instead of bland knockoffs. I know my grandchildren will watch anything. Surely a sick video won't gather more views than a bland one.

Maybe the number that are sick is small and not typical.

[oflannabhra]

I actually think children would be more likely to select an abusive video to watch than a bland one.

Child psychology is incredibly complex, and I am nowhere near an expert, but out of anecdotal experience, children are both terrified and fascinated by their fears. There is an almost obsessive tendency that comes from a minor trauma: for example, a child being startled by a vacuum might then cry every time he sees a vacuum, and ask to see the vacuum.

Note that I don’t think this absolves parents or anyone at YouTube. I think they are both morally obligated to protect children from videos such as this.

[anigbrowl]

Surely a sick video won't gather more views than a bland one.

Of course it will. That's why there's a market for horror movies, but there's no real market for avowedly dull movies.

[ricardobeat]

There are thousands upon thousands of them (though many have been recently removed). Especially the 3D ones. And they have staggering view counts in the hundreds of millions, due to the compounding effect of quantity, shock factor and recommendation algorithms.