If you leave a toddler alone with an iPad long enough, YouTube‘s algorithms will guide her down a deep, dark rabbit hole of strange, low-quality, and often disturbing videos manufactured for kid consumption. These channels use recognizable characters (Mickey Mouse, Paw Patrol) to draw kids into clickbait narratives that they can’t resist watching: Minnie Mouse being crushed by an escalator, Elsa and Spider-man tickling each other, or a love triangle between three Disney characters that results in an unplanned pregnancy.
Who is making these videos? Why? What effect are they having on a generation of connected kids? And what is YouTube doing about it?
This week on 2 Girls 1 Podcast, Alli and Jen (actors who perform weird internet stuff on stage) talk with journalist K.G. Orphanides who has written extensively about YouTube’s strange kid content underbelly.
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2 Girls 1 Podcast is hosted by Allison Goldberg and Jennifer Jamula, and is produced and edited by Matt Silverman in New York City. Production assistance is provided by The Podglomerate.
Want to hear more from the Daily Dot? Check out the Upstream Podcast, tackling the week in streaming entertainment, and We’re All Gonna Die, our weekly politics roundtable.