The nightmare videos of children’s YouTube

What do our children actually see when we let them watch videos on YouTube? Where is the content coming from? What is the publisher’s motivation? And where do automatically generated links lead to?

In this TED Talk, writer and artist James Bridle uncovers a dark, strange corner of the internet. From « surprise egg » reveals and the « Finger Family Song » to algorithmically created mashups of familiar cartoon characters in violent situations, these videos exploit and terrify young minds – « automatically generating kids’ worst nightmares », as Bridle says.

This video provides clear evidence of why we as parents and educators should never let children watch internet videos unaccompanied, and why we should make it a habit to scrutinise motivations, sources and automatically generated links.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by the editors on the TED.com home page.

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