A scary clown. Like Pennywise. Randomly popping up and loudly screaming in the middle of an educational video about buses. I don't want my kids being exposed to that either, and I don't know any parents that would. The commenter wasn't talking about letting their children watch unsupervised, even supervising your children won't stop this type of thing from doing damage.

I'm intrigued that you think that a video that causes persistent nightmares, being afraid to go to bed and trouble sleeping across several nights can't be described as 'damaging'

For something to be damaging there would have to be some damage somewhere. You wouldn’t describe a bad head cold as dancing and that will absolutely lead to a pissed off two year old with trouble sleeping for several nights.

When I taught kindergarten one of the children in the youngest class at the time was terrified of the Eensy Weensy Spider video and of the Elephant in a Hickory Dickory Dock video. I told her to close her eyes when it was coming up. She did. Eventually she got over it.

The idea that a scary clown can be “damaging” is a testament to helicopter parenting. Up to 1900 it would be a rare person indeed that didn’t have siblings die before they were ten and basically no one would make it b that far without having a friend or family member die. That’s trauma. That’s damaging.

> For something to be damaging there would have to be some damage somewhere.

You seem to think emotional trauma isn’t real. It is. And studies of its effects show that it is just as harmful to the brain as physical trauma.

I'd describe it as a learning experience. If you don't get opportunities to grow up, you stay a child forever. Having said that, I wouldn't allow anyone younger than six to watch anything on a screen anywhere.

I had a friend who lost a finger holding a firework. Learning experiences can be damaging.

Dunno man. Kids have nightmares about all sorts of things. They cry all night and want to be cuddled with.

If nightmares and screaming is repeated over and over again, it can lead to some very traumatic experiences in their young brains.

Kids want to be cuddled no matter what. That’s how humans are wired.

Look up the cartoon characters getting run over by cars, or the very disturbing rabbit hole of injection videos. Kids at a certain age take what they see and hear as core truth, and when there’s violence at hat level it leaves a lasting mark.

Have you ever read any of the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales? They are gruesome. Cinderella’s step sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit into the slipper kind of gruesome. Children have been dealing with this kind of stuff for a long, long time. Life leaves a lasting mark. If they’re terrified and nothing bad happens they learn they can deal with this. I wouldn’t do that deliberately to a child but lasting mark does not mean lasting harm.

Simply because trauma has kept past generations “safe” by teaching them to avoid any potential harm, does not mean it’s the best option.

Previous generations also used to “instil” a sense of fear in to children by beating them. It does make them listen as they are then ruled by fear-inducing trauma and yet I think we’re all clear on how it’s not the best option for their growth.

They were also not meant for kids.[1]

1. https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/history/brothers-grimm...

You think a lifelong clown phobia doesn't count as damage?

The clown was just an example, and it's not just "a clown", it was something designed specifically to frighten young children, where the poster had gamed YouTube's systems to have it show up in the kids section.

And I never let the watch unsupervised. But at least with every other streaming service, I don't need to preview the content ahead of time.

Wow. Who /are/ these people? What is their goal? Are there really people on earth with the exclusive motive to scare a two year old and give her nightmares? That is some next level evil.

The source of these videos could be anything from lone assholes to a state sponsored program to destabilize western civilization. Without tracking down the person who uploaded a given video and hitting them with a sock full of quarters until they explain themselves, it is impossible to know.