Mediocre Content, YouTube, and Children

As long as two years ago I stopped paying for YouTube Premium because I was disgusted by the crap that it was recommending to me. Within the last week the United Kingdom has requested that websites age verify their users in order to allow them to use a site.

At first this was for porn sites but now this has expanded to all sites. This is a good thing, although it is unenforceable. Parents, and teachers are better stewards of ensuring that children and teenagers do not watch the crap that YouTubers generate.

Last year, or the year before I was paying for YouTube Premium and more than once I thought “but this juvenile idiot is making really bad content and I’m watching it. When I watched other content I eventually begin to think the same again, and again.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that YouTube pushes the lowest common denominator crap that people tolerate. By this I mean that they don’t do any quality control. They don’t ensure that certain production values are met. They don’t ensure that a certain level of maturity is met. They don’t ensure that a certain quality of story is met.

In one case the creator drew “the strongest shape” everywhere. In another case people threw moonballs in a room filled with computers, desks, and more. In a third case videos show people shopping, before trying to spend the night somewhere. Can you imagine if this content was accepted on broadcast television?

For me age verification is a rational thing to do. I think that there should be an additional step. Editorial oversight. I believe that sites, like YouTube, and others, should have a team of content editors that verify that content meets specific quality requirements before being recommended by algorithms.

More and more often I see girls, usually teenagers, but sometimes adult women too, making videos for antisocial media. I also see men do this, but it’s usually observational rather than a group effort between friends. I think TikTok is toxic but that’s not worries me, for now.

Old Children and Their Viewing

What worries me is old children who are about to become teenagers watching user generated crap, a term I came up in 2007 or so, to describe what others see as user generated content.

As I watched one video I thought “but this is stream of conscience”. I got the impression that someone just recorded hours, or even days of game play, and just cobbled all of it together, without thinking of storyline and flow. The production values of such content is low.

If friends or siblings were watching each other play I wouldn’t think anything of it. It’s that people are self-isolating by watching mediocre content, when they don’t need to be alone.

The lowered Barrier

As I watched YoUTube series made for YouTube by “YouTubers” I felt myself sliding downwards. I noticed that I was watching absolute rubbish. I found myself being drawn into the Cult of the Ameteur that Andrew Keen wrote about. I found myself watching lower, and lower brow content, until I realised what was happening and put an end to it.

Now I can’t stand YouTube

You, and I would think “So let’s just stop watching crap” but the issue isn’t with us. It’s with the content that is being recommended. YouTube automatically advances to the next piece of crap, and the next, until we’re deep within mediocrity.

The natural instinct is to go back to the top, to the dashboard, and to look for more content. The more UGC we watch, the more is recommended. As we have 16 videos to choose from YouTube ends up force feeding is the crap that is the most popular, irrespective of viewing habits, age, cultural context and more. For YouTube a user is just a user.

Corporate Social Responsibility

We hear a lot about companies and the environment. We rarely hear about web companies and their CSR in regards to human beings, mental, and emotional health. For me banning mobile phones for children is superficial. For me, we have to hold social media companies such as Facebook, Google and others to account, for how they mistreat their users.

If we block children, but we forget that adults also need help to avoid toxic social media, then we are failing. People called for a boycott of Twitter under Musk, and Facebook for a reason. Facebook is hiding behind Threads, Instagram and Whatsapp for a reason.

If it was up to some of us then FB, Threads, Twitter and more apps would be banned and made responsible too The EU is trying to get tech giants to respect CSR but it is a downhill struggle.

I use the illustration of the downhill struggle because if you’re hiking uphill and you get tired you can stop. If you’re heading downhill and you realise you’re going too fast for the bend you’ll fly off the edge. If you’re heading down too fast, and your knees are not strong enough you will get knee pain.

Social media has momentum, and we’re heading downhill. Europe is trying to control things, and Valais is trying to control the impact on children. For me we have to control the impact on adults as well, because adults vote, and make bad decisions that affect the whole of society.

And Finally

Usually I love to advocate for more freedom, and more self-governorship. In the current social media landscape I believe that governments must reign in tech giants, because if they do not, if they move fast and break things, then they risk breaking moral society. With age verification children are being protected, but they’re not being protected once they’re adults. I believe that adults need as much protection as children.

Some of us studied Theory of Knowledge, Media Studies or morality and ethics, but many did not. In light of this social media companies must be held to account for the society they are forming, one video or social interaction at a time. In my eyes Media Studies has become key. Media literacy is essential. Finland teaches children about media literacy for a reason.