In an article found on indianexpress.com written by Warren Buckleitner, Youtube's new "safety mode" feature is explored and tested. Buckleitner expailns that the safety mode is supposed to keep young eyes, or any other eyes for that matter, from seeing things they shouldn't or just don't feel the need to see. He says, "Search on an obvious word, like ‘sex’, and you should see the message ‘no results found’. Now you know the Safety Mode is working. Next, start thinking like a bored middle-schooler, say with a few hours to kill after school". He searched specific terms from Grand Theft Auto that involved a prostitute and got numerous hits for that- scenes that are apparently highly controversial in this popular video game . He also searched for and got some very graphic film clips from the movie The Hurt Locker. These are rated M and R respectively. Buckleitner also discovered that while it showed no results for the search of the word 'sex', it didn't restrict access to videos under the search phrase sex 'scenes'. He emailed Youtube asking what the safety mode actually does and Mandy Albanese answered, saying "...We're not getting into the business of children's media. Safety mode is not meant to create a G-rated experience, and no filter is 100% accurate."
So, what's the point of creating a filter on videos with content like graphic violence and direct links to porn sites? I guess there isn't much point to it. So many forms of media are so commonly available to literally everyone in this day and age that it's hard to avoid. It's hard to not become desensitized to it all when just on the news we hear about so much violence and rape and other sadly common topics. Seeing things like that constantly, and eventually becoming immune to the effects it should have on a person is called the mainstreaming effect. Do we want that to happen to us? More specifically, to young children who are increasingly media savvy at a younger and younger age? It shouldn't be this way so if a big-name website like Youtube is going to allow kids to have access to watch men being blown up by bombs, or practically pornographic clips (with links to the actual porn all over the page), they should install a filter that actually works.
I think it's obvious why we should all care about this. Questionable content on Youtube isn't new, and neither is the idea of trying to protect your kids, siblings or yourself for that matter from it. Youtube does have a flagging system in use for specific videos seen that one can utilize. However, if they're going to go through the trouble to have this safety mode feature in the first place, wouldn't you agree with me that it should actually provide safety? Kids and their impressionable, still developing minds are exposed to enough filth every day through the news, in schools, etc, so more ought to be done to prevent them from searching out more of it and eventually becoming immune to it.
So, what's the point of creating a filter on videos with content like graphic violence and direct links to porn sites? I guess there isn't much point to it. So many forms of media are so commonly available to literally everyone in this day and age that it's hard to avoid. It's hard to not become desensitized to it all when just on the news we hear about so much violence and rape and other sadly common topics. Seeing things like that constantly, and eventually becoming immune to the effects it should have on a person is called the mainstreaming effect. Do we want that to happen to us? More specifically, to young children who are increasingly media savvy at a younger and younger age? It shouldn't be this way so if a big-name website like Youtube is going to allow kids to have access to watch men being blown up by bombs, or practically pornographic clips (with links to the actual porn all over the page), they should install a filter that actually works.
I think it's obvious why we should all care about this. Questionable content on Youtube isn't new, and neither is the idea of trying to protect your kids, siblings or yourself for that matter from it. Youtube does have a flagging system in use for specific videos seen that one can utilize. However, if they're going to go through the trouble to have this safety mode feature in the first place, wouldn't you agree with me that it should actually provide safety? Kids and their impressionable, still developing minds are exposed to enough filth every day through the news, in schools, etc, so more ought to be done to prevent them from searching out more of it and eventually becoming immune to it.
Post a Comment