So I figured I would post this, even though I am sure it will devolve into a heated discussion and people irked with my position on the matter anyway.
I have a kid. He is three. Like myself, he has a natural ability with computers. So much to the fact I have given him one of the ones I have here in the house. IT may sound odd to give a three year old a computer, but he can navigate around better than some adults I know. I have taught him how to change the background, play music/sounds use paint. Save/open files in paint, and most recently I turned him loose on the web in Firefox and low and behold at the age of three he is already surfing like a pro. Seriously, no shit.
I turned on the parental controls in Windows to block him from doing some things, like starting up a game of Internet checkers or installing software. I also set Firefox to block a few things to keep him from making too many changes or accidentally giving out too much information. I then installed Net Nanny as to filter what he could get back in Firefox as well. I mean, he is only three.
He loves YouTube. He spends literally half the day these days clicking through YouTube watching his favourite cartoons (Dora, Spongebob, Mickey Mouse, etc.) and watching silly home videos of cats and some kid named Charlie who bites fingers.
The problem I recently encountered though was he came across the Happy Tree Friends clips. For some reason they show up in the suggestion list on YouTube when you are watching normal childrens cartoons. They are not rated as adult content and anyone can click on them.
This is where the question part comes into the post. Now I know this is going to make many of you post strong opinions here, but, I emailed YouTube about this as I thought they should be 18+. Their own website says not for kids, and Wikipedia says the same thing. YouTube however does not see it that way. They have even disabled the 'flag' option on the videos as they have already reviewed them and found no problems leaving them open to the public.
Are there any other parents out there who have encountered this sort of thing? Anyone else have any views on this? My Net Nanny software is great at filtering many things but the Happy Tree Friends gets through thanks to the lack of restrictions on YouTube.
I posted a similar thread like this on the YouTube help forums, and also found a few others that were identical, and the basic response was, if you don't like your kids watching it don't let them on YouTube. I personally think that is a cop out for many reasons. First and foremost, if they really felt it was our responsibility to keep kids off their site, then why even have the 18+ restrictions? They fact it exist shows the powers that be at YouTube do feel some content should not be viewed by minors. More importantly Happy Tree Friends was always on telly after the watershed (late night) as the content was barred by the FCC.
What are your thoughts on this? Should I and the other parents just block YouTube? It would be a shame since there is so much good content and the fact 99% of the time the age restriction does block the more adult based content. Why would Google/YouTube take such a perplexing approach to this content when they have made many music videos which show on MTV during the day 18+ content?
It just seems someone there has decided they want this content there and are willing to ignore common sense in this matter. Am I being naive for thinking YouTube should be doing more to protect our children? Should I just block YouTube and be done with it?
I, yes me, have also contemplated going nuclear with this. By that I mean there are a dozen right-wing conservative groups, a few which have already brought huge lawsuits against YouTube over content issues like this which I have thought about contacting. I know, the irony, eh? Me with a 18+ channel on YouTube complaining about adult content to the very groups I usually assail in my posts here when they do things like go after YouTube. It just seems this time I think a bit more conservatism on this matter might be just the thing. I am not asking anyone to remove anything or censor it, just to block it from children. Is that asking too much? Am I becoming a content nazi?
Feel free to blast me now and point out all of the irony.