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A comment on YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers. Parent comment

Re:YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers by corysama on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @04:24PM (#26730705)
This stuff doesn't require corporate conspiracies. Imagine being a tech-literate person in some very poor country. You discover that if you churn out Flash videos of pregnant Spiderman pulling thorns out of a kitten's paws while spiders crawl down the walls and Elsa is vomiting in the background, you can make a pretty good living for your area without leaving your apartment. You might object to the idea. But, it only takes a few people who say "Fuck it. I need money." to churn out huge quantities of this stuff.
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Re:YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers by nerdponx on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @08:00PM (#26733239)
Is this actually a real video?
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Re:YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers by retrac on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @10:21PM (#26734381)
I could believe it. There was one that went around enough to make the news a few years ago. Peppa Pig goes to the dentist. Starts off as you might expect if it were wholesome. Then it begins. Everything is in constantly shifting perspective. A giant syringe comes out. The shadows grow long. Peppa Pig then has her teeth pulled out. The audio has children crying, but not closely synced to the video.

My take was that it was crafted to be optimally engaging to a child of about four years of age. With no other purpose. Maybe even semi-automatically generated. The subject matter is a common fear of children. The video does not have enough to push it quite over the edge to any horror/revulsion response. Any particular frame would not be too out of place in a children's cartoon. As an adult, it disturbs mostly when you realize what's going on behind it conceptually.

Obviously worked as intended, given how many views it got. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-39381889

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Re:YouTube Kids a “vapid wasteland” say US lawmakers by corysama on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @08:13PM (#26733355)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsagate

There are thousands of video variations of that theme. Someone else here mentioned people cosplaying the characters in creepy ways. I think it started there and evolved rapidly into automated production of reptile-brain trigger material.

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