Facebook and YouTube are worst offenders in exposing kids to sex, violence and suicide, study finds

Facebook and YouTube have been ranked as the worst offenders when it comes to exposing children to adult content such as sex, violence, bullying, suicide and alcohol and drug related content.

The NSPCC, the UK’s highest-profile children’s charity, gathered reviews from more than 4,000 parents and young adults to create a league table of tech companies featuring the ‘riskiest sites’ with adult content.

Facebook and YouTube both posed a ‘high risk’ across all categories, with one in four children encountering adult content.

Facebook and YouTube have been ranked as the worst offenders when it comes to exposing children to adult content such as sex, violence, bullying, suicide and alcohol and drug related content

‘Facebook and YouTube still do not provide any meaningful information on the volume of reports relating to children, and the outcomes of such reports,’ said John Carr, secretary of the UK Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety.

‘These are woeful examples of the transparency that we can expect if we continue with self-regulation.’

‘The effect of this lack of transparency is that social networks are not being held to account for the measures they take to protect children, nor are they held to account for whether these measures are effective,’ he continued.

YouTube has been rocked with scandal recently after popular user Logan Paul posted a disturbing suicide video that showed a corpse hanging from a tree.

The video, which had the title ‘We found a dead body’, was viewed some 6 million times before being removed from his YouTube channel – a verified account with more than 15 million subscribers. 

The video game ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ was ranked as bad as Facebook and YouTube, with red warnings across all categories. 

The NSPCC, the UK's highest-profile children's charity, gathered reviews from more than 4,000 parents and young adults to create a league table of tech companies featuring the 'riskiest sites' with adult content

The NSPCC, the UK’s highest-profile children’s charity, gathered reviews from more than 4,000 parents and young adults to create a league table of tech companies featuring the ‘riskiest sites’ with adult content

Tumblr, Kik and Omegle have been deemed the safest for children, scoring a ‘high’ warning in just one category.

Instagram was rated high for both bullying and sexual content.  

‘When you’re watching a video of something like a makeup artist, a video can be at the side of something completely different that could be sexual/hurtful or anything else. It’s easy to get yourself into a bad video,’ said a 16-year-old girl to the NSPCC.

 A 13-year-old Facebook user added: ‘I don’t like that just random people can send you a friend request.’

The video game 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' was ranked as bad as Facebook and YouTube, with red warnings across all categories

YouTube has been rocked with scandal recently after popular user Logan Paul posted a disturbing suicide video that showed a corpse hanging from a tree

The video game ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ (left) was ranked as bad as Facebook and YouTube. YouTube has been rocked with scandal recently after popular user Logan Paul (right) posted a disturbing video that showed a corpse hanging from a tree

HOW IS YOUTUBE MAKING ITS KIDS APP SAFER?

YouTube is finally rolling out changes to the privacy settings on it Kids app. 

After several issues with the service were reported, it is now rolling out updates this week. 

The new features will allow parents to filter content on the app so it only displays channels that have been reviewed by humans rather than algorithms. 

 Later this year there will be three further updates. 

Collections by trusted partners and YouTube Kids staff

YouTube Kids staff will offer collections of trusted channels on a variety of subjects.

This can be done from in the Profile Settings and parents can select from collections such as Sesame Workshop and PBS KIDS. 

YouTube will continue to add more partners over time. 

Parent approved content

YouTube is rolling out a feature later this year that will allow parents to specifically handpick every video and channel available to their child in the Kids app.

Improved search-off control

Starting this week, turning search off will limit the YouTube Kids experience to channels that have been verified by the YouTube Kids team.    

The results came out a day after the government announced it was introducing laws over the next two years to further govern social media companies.  

The findings were published a day after the British government announced that it would introduce laws to rein in social media companies over the next two years.

Culture Secretary Matt Hancock said he wants to fine the companies like Facebook and Snapchat for allowing children under the age of 13 to sign up for accounts.



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