{"id":22960,"date":"2023-05-17T05:58:07","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T05:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/949df1ba-883d-47ec-8ec2-9763e0a4aa3312"},"modified":"2023-05-17T05:58:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T05:58:07","slug":"youtubes-recommendations-are-leading-kids-to-gun-videos-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/youtubes-recommendations-are-leading-kids-to-gun-videos-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube\u2019s recommendations are leading kids to gun videos, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/youtubes-recommendations-are-leading-kids-to-gun-videos-report-says.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>YouTube\u2019s recommendations are leading young kids to videos about school shootings and other gun-related content, according to a<span class=\"waslinkname\"> new report.<\/span> According to the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog group, YouTube\u2019s recommendation algorithm is \u201cpushing boys interested in video games to scenes of school shootings, instructions on how to use and modify weapons\u201d and other gun-centric content.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The researchers behind the report set up four new YouTube accounts posing as two 9-year-old boys and two 14-year-old boys. All accounts watched playlists of content about popular video games, like<em> Roblox<\/em>, <em>Lego Star Wars<\/em>, <em>Halo<\/em> and <em>Grand Theft Auto<\/em>. The researchers then tracked the accounts\u2019 recommendations during a 30-day period last November.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"end-legacy-contents\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe study found that YouTube pushed content on shootings and weapons to all of the gamer accounts, but at a much higher volume to the users who clicked on the YouTube-recommended videos,\u201d the TTP writes. \u201cThese videos included scenes depicting school shootings and other mass shooting events; graphic demonstrations of how much damage guns can inflict on a human body; and how-to guides for converting a handgun to a fully automatic weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the report notes, several of the recommended videos appeared to violate YouTube\u2019s own policies. Recommendations included videos of a young girl firing a gun and tutorials on converting handguns into \u201cfully automatic\u201d weapons and other modifications. Some of these videos were also monetized with ads.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson pointed to the YouTube Kids app and its in-app <span class=\"waslinkname\"><ins>supervision<\/ins><\/span> tools, which \u201ccreate a safer experience for tweens and teens\u201d on its platform.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe welcome research on our recommendations, and we\u2019re exploring more ways to bring in academic researchers to study our systems,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cBut in reviewing this report\u2019s methodology, it\u2019s difficult for us to draw strong conclusions. For example, the study doesn\u2019t provide context of how many overall videos were recommended to the test accounts, and also doesn\u2019t give insight into how the test accounts were set up, including whether YouTube\u2019s Supervised Experiences tools were applied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The TTP report is far from the first time researchers have raised questions about YouTube\u2019s recommendation algorithm. The company has also spent years working to reduce so-called <span class=\"waslinkname\"><ins>\u201cborderline\u201d<\/ins><\/span> content \u2014 videos that don&#8217;t break its rules outright but may otherwise be unsuitable for mass distribution \u2014 from appearing in recommendations. And last year, the company said it was considering <span class=\"waslinkname\"><ins>disabling<\/ins><\/span> sharing altogether on some such content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>YouTube\u2019s recommendations are leading young kids to videos about school shootings and other gun-related content, according to a new report. According to the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog group, YouTube\u2019s recommendation algorithm is \u201cpushing boys interested in video games to scenes of school shootings, instructions on how to use and modify weapons\u201d and &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22960"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=22960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}