YouTube is finally doing more to crack down on disturbing videos creating sick by pranksters to frighten children.
Many of the videos look like normal cartoons on YouTube’s homepage, but they stray from innocent themes to scenes of violence or sexuality.
Now, the site says it is asking users to flag this content so that it no longer appears on the YouTube Kids app and requires over 18 age verification to be seen on the main app.
YouTube is putting in place age-restrictions which means users can flag inappropriate content in the main app to stop children being exposed to disturbing videos. This image shows a Peppa Pig fake that depict the character being attacked by zombies
‘We’re in the process of implementing a new policy that age restricts this content in the YouTube main app when flagged,’ said Juniper Downs, YouTube’s director of policy said in a statement.
‘Age-restricted content is automatically not allowed in YouTube Kids’, said Ms Downs who said the new team should be live in a few weeks.
‘The YouTube team is made up of parents who are committed to improving our apps and getting this right’, she said.
In YouTube Kids, algorithms should first catch inappropriate videos, writes the Verge.
It normally takes five days for content to get from YouTube to YouTube Kids.
Within that window it is hoped users and a specially-trained team will flag disturbing content.
Once it has been flagged and reviewed, it won’t appear on the YouTube Kids app and only people who are signed in and older than 18 years old will be able to view it.
The company say thousands of people will be working around the clock to flag content.
It follows news in August of this year in which YouTube announced that it would no longer allow creators to monetize videos which ‘made inappropriate use of family friendly characters.
There have been many cases of inappropriate content found on YouTube Kids in recent months.
In March, a disturbing Peppa Pig fake, found by journalist Laura June, shows a dentist with a huge syringe pulling out the character’s teeth as she screams in distress.
Mrs June only realised the violent nature of the video as her three-year-old daughter watched it beside her.
‘Peppa does a lot of screaming and crying and the dentist is just a bit sadistic and it’s just way, way off what a three-year-old should watch,’ she said.
‘But the animation is close enough to looking like Peppa – it’s crude but it’s close enough that my daughter was like ‘This is Peppa Pig.”
Another video depicted Peppa Pig and a friend deliberately burning down a house with someone in it.
Hundreds of these disturbing videos were found on YouTube by BBC Trending back in March.
All of these videos are easily accessed by children through YouTube’s search results or recommended videos.
In addition to Peppa Pig, similar videos were found featuring characters from the Disney movie Frozen, the Minions franchise, Doc McStuffins, Thomas the Tank Engine, and more.
Some of the channels that run these cartoons generate millions of views from the disturbing videos.
Some of these videos can be watched through YouTube Kids – an automated app that is supposed to filter out inappropriate videos. This image shows a still from a violent video posing as a Doc McStuffins cartoon
One channel ‘Toys and Funny Kids Surprise Eggs’ is one of the 100 most popular videos on YouTube with over 5 billion video views total.
The channel’s homepage includes a picture of a toddler next to pictures of Peppa Pig, Thomas the Tank Engine, the Cookie Monster, Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Elsa from Frozen that look official.
But the channel’s videos include titled such as ‘FROZEN ELSA HUGE SNOT’, ‘NAKED HULK LOSES HIS PANTS’ and ‘BLOODY ELSA: Frozen Elsa’s Arm is Broken by Spiderman’.
Many of the videos feature graphic violence and toiler humour not appropriate for children.
Professor Sonia Livingstone, a social psychologist at the London School of Economics, is an expert on child online safety.
‘It’s perfectly legitimate for a parent to believe that something called Peppa Pig is going to be Peppa Pig,’ she told the BBC.
All of these videos are easily accessed by children through YouTube’s search results or recommended videos, including this Doc McStuffins fake that shows the characters burning down tents at a campsite
‘And I think many of them have come to trust YouTube… as a way of entertaining your child for ten minutes while the parent makes a phone call. I think if it wants to be a trusted brand then parents should know that protection is in place.
‘I don’t think we want to police it for the whole world. ‘A lot of this material is satirical, creative – or actually offensive but within freedom of expression. What we need is child protection.’
YouTube refused to provide a spokesperson for interview but said in a comment: ‘We take feedback very seriously. We appreciate people drawing problematic content to our attention, and make it easy for anyone to flag a video.
Since being contacted for comment, YouTube took down many of the videos found in the original investigation.
The NSPCC offers online safety advice for parents with young children.
This is not the first time that YouTube parodies of children’s cartoons have stirred controversy.
In July last year, clips showing Peppa Pig characters with knives and guns appeared on the YouTube Kids app. In one, a cig-smoking, knife-toting ‘gangster’ pig threatens the fairy princess from kids’ favourite Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom (pictured)
In July last year, clips showing Peppa Pig characters with knives and guns appeared on the YouTube Kids app.
The shocking videos were found alongside official clips of the show.
In one, a cig-smoking, knife-toting ‘gangster’ pig threatens the fairy princess from kids’ favourite Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom.
A separate video sees Peppa flying a kite with cartoon character Masha when a terrifying clown armed with a knife swoops down, puts Masha in a cage and carries her off.
The videos were accessible to young children even with the parental settings set to pre-school age.
YouTube quickly removed the clips, stating: ‘Any that don’t belong in the app are removed within hours.’