That time Dora the Explorer taught my daughter her first swear word
Issue #7
My daughter Kaylie was four years old. She was sitting on her favorite kitchen stool, headphones on, watching cartoons on our family iPad. After the video ended, she walked over to me and asked me about a new word she had just heard in her show. A word that’s not fit to print. My jaw hit the floor. I unplugged her headphones, and sure enough, there was Dora the Explorer swearing like a sailor. This kind of rogue content is a problem of YouTube’s own making—one that’s inherent to a platform where anyone can publish anything.
Back in 2019, YouTube found itself in some hot water because of the way the platform handled kids' data and managed kids' content. They agreed to make changes to improve child privacy following an investigation and $170 million fine from the FTC, but as for the changes intended to make content safer, the platform shifted much of that onus onto the content creators. And they stopped short of the change that would have the biggest impact on the quality and suitability of the videos on their platform: content moderation. It’s hard to know what compels someone to make Dora say unholy things, but as long as there’s a platform that relies on content creators to self-police their videos, it’s likely to keep happening.
So what can parents do to keep their kids safe on YouTube? We learned the hard way that looks can be deceiving, so we made a few changes to the way we used YouTube in our family after the Dora incident. Kaylie only watched videos sans headphones until she got a little older. We also stuck to videos on channels we knew and trusted, and we adopted a hard rule: no clicking through recommended videos.
It’s of course “best practice” to watch content together with your kids, but that’s not always possible, especially when YouTube is giving you a much-needed parental sanity break. So, if you’re setting your kids up to watch a video and you’re feeling concerned, jump ahead to a few spots throughout to make sure there’s nothing untoward. And it’s not a bad idea to have a talk with your children about what to do if they see something upsetting. Older kids might even be ready to learn how to report videos on their own.
A deeper dive
Here are a few helpful resources in case you want to really dig into today's topic:
Another infamous example of YouTube content gone wrong made headlines because it was especially shocking. It featured a man offering advice on how to commit suicide in a clip of a popular children’s video game and was first reported by Dr. Free Hess, a mom and pediatrician. In an interview with CNN, she stated, "It makes me angry and sad and frustrated. I'm a pediatrician, and I'm seeing more and more kids coming in with self-harm and suicide attempts. I don't doubt that social media and things such as this are contributing."
The changes the YouTube ultimately made should, in theory, help protect kids' privacy while they're using the platform, but some critics think they aren't going far enough. Data collection and personalized advertising are no longer allowed on videos deemed to be kids' content, but according to Josh Golin, executive director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, "[t]here’s still a gray area for content that may not obviously be for children, but is mostly viewed by children. The burden is largely on creators to police the site and not enough on YouTube."
TL;DR
Too long; didn't read. It shouldn't be a full-time job to keep up on industry news, so here is a mercifully quick summary of some other notable developments:
Snapchat recently announced that it's launching a new section called Spotlight, which is basically a TikTok competitor. In order to encourage users to post content, the company will pay out $1 million a day to the most popular creators on the app until the end of 2020. It'll be different than TikTok in a few ways, though: Spotlight snaps won’t allow public comments, and profiles will be private by default.
Online learning has been... challenging to say the least. But some experts suspect it will negatively affect boys more than girls. A meta-analysis of more than 200 studies showed that girls have significantly higher school performance than boys from elementary school through to college. And, some experts expect remote learning to exacerbate the gap. "Boys are not only diagnosed most frequently with ADHD, but boys who aren’t diagnosed have higher levels of distractibility symptoms than girls,” said Stephen Becker, an associate professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “When you’re put in a situation with less routine and structure, it could have an impact on learning,” he said.
And lastly
Here are a few more pieces of original writing from me and my team—just in case you're keen for more:
There is plenty of advice out there for how to protect kids' privacy while they're learning online, but most of it puts the onus squarely on parents and teachers. Here are my thoughts on why we can't fix this problem alone.
It feels like winter has arrived in many parts of North America. But, colder weather and shorter days don't have to prevent you from having a bit of fun with your kids. Here are a few fun and safe winter activity ideas from the Kinzoo team.