The US sub-committee on economic and consumer policy sent a letter [PDF] to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki about its app for kids, saying it’s full of “inappropriate… highly commercial content”.
According to the letter, some videos appeared to be “smuggling in hidden marketing and advertising with product placements by children’s influencers”.
The letter claimed that one research team, which it did not name, found only about 4% of videos had a high educational value. Much of the rest was low quality content such as toy unboxing and videos of people playing video games.
Check It Out: Lawmakers Call YouTube Kids ‘Wasteland of Vapid, Consumerist Content’
Andrew:
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, that a private enterprise with a business model built around surveillance capitalism would peddle low-calibre, nutrient-poor infotainment content as a Trojan horse for marketing and advertisement product placement before the innocent minds the wee ones.
For shame!
A better solution would be to charge parents by the minute in order to reduce the viewing time, and therefore the exposure to the little tikes. Yep. Higher subscription prices are the ticket! A win-win for everyone and revels all around!
Let’s just hope that this doesn’t lead to anything insane, like regulation; or worse, enforceable standards and industry accountability.
You mean YouTubeKids is just like Television? Who’da thunk…