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Comment by lph | Hacker News Reader

You clearly haven't seen some of the horrifying stuff that slips past the filters. We're not talking about the episode of Leave it to Beaver where Wally smokes a joint. There is a category of malicious amateur cartoons that look kid friendly in the thumbnail and in the first few minutes, and then become sick. The Elsagate stuff was part of that. I have seen, on YouTube Kids: an ice cream truck driven by a cartoon animal, who poisons and kills the other cartoon animals; and a knock off Mickey Mouse cartoon where Mickey rips his own head off unexpectedly with full blood and gore. This is not "have a discussion with your kids" territory, it's nightmares and trauma. As a parent, the risk of that happening obliterates the value proposition of YouTube for kids.

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> We're not talking about the episode of Leave it to Beaver where Wally smokes a joint.

As a big Leave it to Beaver fan I find this hilarious. And would pay anything to watch this episode if it existed.

Well, that does not sound more horrifying than say Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons.

That is not a cartoon for young children though. It is rated TV-PG and even TV-14 on some episodes.

> This is not "have a discussion with your kids" territory, it's nightmares and trauma.

The big tech companies are so far removed from real users that they'll just tighten a few screws on their machine learning and call it fixed. You're a roundoff error to them, unfortunately. These people are the real machines, servicing the electronic machines to make money for their masters, the execs and stockholders.

I have seen it, yes. The sudden gore is obviously unfortunate for a toddler to stumble across, even for an older child. I understand that you would like to shield your children for such content, but I also strongly believe that it's possible to do so with communication, rules and strict guidelines on how to look up content and suggested videos.

"As a parent" is one of my favourite phrases, by the way. It translates to "I know better than you, regardless of your parental status". Which is fine. I was only wondering about the reasoning, after all. :)

> "As a parent" is one of my favourite phrases, by the way. It translates to "I know better than you, regardless of your parental status".

I sympathize with this. Lots of parents are vociferous morons, because lots of people are morons and becoming parents does not fix that. But: There is a real difference, at least for many people. Your brain rewires itself to be hyper-vigilant about child safety and child harm. I can't watch TV or movies anymore that involve harm or the threat of grave harm to children, but these wouldn't have bothered me before. When I enter a room, I subconsciously scan it like Jason Bourne if he were a toddler's bodyguard. Slippery surfaces? Sharp table corners? Unfenced stairs? I've compared notes with friends and this is a common, if not universal, change in parents. They spend a lot of time thinking about child safety.

I think the OP is saying the same thing you are, which is that smoking a joint is not the problem: it’s the random gore.

I sure did miss that "not".

You seem to have misread the parent comment.

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