A beheading was moments away from unfolding before the eyes of a three-year-old girl in a horrifying case of graphic material making its way onto YouTube Kids.
The child’s mother, from Moonee Ponds in Melbourne, was taking a conference call while her daughter watched Peppa Pig, but knew something was wrong when she noticed the absence of the cartoon character’s voice.
She checked on her daughter to find footage of a kneeling man about to be beheaded, hitting the power button seconds from the gruesome act playing out, The Advertiser reported.
A mother narrowly saved her three-year-old daughter from seeing a violent beheading secretly embedded in a Pepper Pig (pictured) video on YouTube Kids
Fortunately she was able to protect her daughter from the grim clip, but wanted other mothers to know the ‘kids’ function on YouTube did not guarantee cyber safety.
YouTube has marketed its offshoot as ‘safer and simpler for kids to explore the world through online video’, but a string of similar instances has proven this might not be the case.
The platform has come under fire several times for not policing its content thoroughly enough, with a number of lewd clips reported to have appeared part-way through children’s videos.
A recent incident involved preschool children in New South Wales and Queensland enacting sexual behaviour in school hours after being accidentally exposed to pornographic content on YouTube Kids.
Fortunately she was able to protect her daughter from the grim clip, but wanted other mothers to know the ‘kids’ function on YouTube did not guarantee cyber safety (stock photo)
While YouTube claimed the family-friendly version was free of adult material, it has been revealed it’s in fact no safer than the regular service.
Inappropriate material was only removed from ‘kids’ once it was reported – the same process as content shared to the adult site.
Such loose regulatory policies could contribute to the one in five children aged eight and under that now watch pornographic material online.
Minister for Law Enforcement and Cyber Safety Angus Taylor called on social media companies to be more vigilant with its policing of content.
‘I am aware of these types of cases. Social media companies absolutely have a responsibility to do more,’ Minister Taylor said.
A recent incident involved preschool children in New South Wales and Queensland enacting sexual behaviour in school hours after being accidentally exposed to pornographic content on YouTube Kids (stock photo)
‘All versions of the YouTube Kids app use filters powered by algorithms to select videos from YouTube. We continually work hard to make our algorithms as accurate as possible in order to provide a safer version of YouTube,’ a spokeswoman said.
Digital expert Dr Kristy Goodwin was called into schools following reports children as young as four imitated ‘doggy style’ sexual positions.
‘These four and five year-olds are imitating doggy style, they are trying to force other children to imitate the act of fellatio all in the schoolyard because of things they have been exposed to online,’ Dr Goodwin said.
Esafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said such instances were highly concerning because children of that age did not have the cognitive ability to process the content.
Cyber Cop’s Susan McClean said parents could protect their children by boycotting internet streaming services and instead putting on a DVD or VCR.
YouTube said it used filters powered by algorithms to select videos safe for a young audience