The Scene staff
When you think of YouTube, you may think of funny videos, music and vlogs, but the platform also has a dark side.
There are inappropriate and disturbing videos that should not be on YouTube. Sometimes this content slips through the site’s cracks, and it stays put for a while before it’s taken down.
Some people may argue that this is just the internet, and that sort of thing happens all the time. But how would you feel if you found out that some of this content was directly targeting your children?
Say hello to “Elsagate.”
Also known as Blueygate, this YouTube sub-genre is aimed specifically toward children, with many of these sick videos garnering millions of views in only a couple of weeks through the use of algorithms and clickbait.
It should be rather clear as to why the content is controversial. Most of the videos contain disturbing or inappropriate visuals, ranging from live-action depictions of Elsa (from the movie “Frozen”) being impregnated by Spider-Man to crude animations of Peppa Pig shoving needles into her family before cannibalizing them.
One video in particular involved an almost-innocent cartoon in which a bipedal version of Chase from “Paw Patrol” finds and drinks a bottle of yellow liquid, which is actually urine, before becoming seriously ill.
It’s believed that the sub-genre began around 2007, but it didn’t start prompting serious outrage until 2017 with YouTubers, commentary channels and even news outlets demanding the videos be taken down.
The situation would only get worse from there. After more research, it was discovered that many of the “kids” channels on YouTube housed pedophiles looking to groom children within the comment sections.
WSB in Atlanta, CBS News, The New York Times, WGN in Chicago, KSL News Radio, Forbes and many other news outlets called YouTube to task for its potential for harming children, and the platform’s ad revenue declined significantly.
Additionally, both Google and YouTube were forced to pay $170 million to settle a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission and the New York attorney general.
In response, YouTube purged its platform of many channels associated with Elsagate and created a separate site specifically for children called YouTube Kids.
However, because of this action, many content creators known for their animations were automatically and wrongfully added to the Kids’ site, where the comment sections had been disabled and their material was no longer eligible for monetization.
This created its own set of issues, but that did not bother YouTube in the least. After all, ad revenue had begun to return, and it is a corporation first and foremost.
I’m sure that some people are wondering why I am bringing up Elsagate if it is no longer a problem. The answer is simple: As of 2022, this sub-genre was making a comeback both on YouTube and YouTube Kids. Parents should be aware of the dangers.
Elsagate creators are becoming smarter and more insidious.
They have found loopholes within the YouTube system to push more videos toward children by following the Fair Use Act. This allows the limited use of copyrighted material, such as images of Mickey Mouse or Dora the Explorer.
In effect, the Elsagate creators are mocking YouTube and other child-protection efforts. They are actively seeking an audience, despite the past uproar and criticism.
It also should be noted that the Elsagate phenomenon is a complex one, and there is no easy solution for YouTube. The problem complicates things for channels that upload shock-value videos for adults, whose creatorsaren’t trying to influence or harm children. Some of these videos are passion projects or creative ways to work through personal issues.
It is difficult for moderators to keep up with the sheer volume of content that is uploaded to YouTube each day. That said, it’s not right for the platform to stifle the creativity of well-meaning video creators or punish those who rightfully include content warnings.
It’s up to viewers to decide whether or not to watch videos. Right?
Despite numerous arguments and counterarguments involved in this discussion, I believe that it is important for parents to be aware of the potential dangers of leaving their children unsupervised on YouTube and to monitor their children’s online activity to ensure that they are not being exposed to anything that could be harmful.
Again, while YouTube is a great platform for entertainment and education, there is a dark side.
Please talk to your children about online safety and make sure they know never to share personal information online. To further ensure their safety, let them know that not everything they see online is real, set up rules and parental controls to filter out inappropriate content and encourage them to tell you if they see anything online that makes them feel uncomfortable.