There are some pretty sick people in this world and it's so important as parents to be monitoring your kids on the internet and what they are watching. A new video hack pops up in the middle of innocent cartoons with a creepy character and tells kids how to slit their wrists and harm themselves.
Many parents have been taking to Facebook and social media to warn others about this sick and demented new hack that could be very scary and dangerous to young children. Dr. Free Hess of Ocala wrote on her parenting blog PediMom.com, "Seven months ago, a concerned mother alerted me to a cartoon on YouTube Kids that had a clip of a man spliced in showing how to properly slit their wrists....[then] She noticed it while sitting with her young child trying to stop his nosebleed."
After reporting the video and it being removed, Hess also wrote in the blog post. "Just yesterday I was alerted to yet ANOTHER cartoon with the same clip spliced in at 4.44. This time the cartoon is on YouTube, not YouTube Kids." Another parent claimed their child saw a video where the person told them to "leave the stove on when their parents go to bed."
Youtube says they are currently working on new technology to assist parental controls and find this content faster. They released a statement to CNN saying they "appreciate[s] people drawing problematic content to our attention. Flagged videos are manually reviewed 24/7, and any videos that don't belong in the app are removed."
Ultimately, it's you as a parent's job to constantly monitor your kids viewing and not just let them have free reign to explore. I'd suggest minimizing screen time all together, as it's already been shown in many studies to harm their brains and development. "Parental Controls" aren't the end all be all. These videos are slipping through those blocks.
My wife and I had a serious discussion about this with our kids and we are taking pro-active measures. She's even deleted Youtube and YouTube kids all together from our iPad.
This was another viral/internet challenge that is teaching kids the same sort of things through apps and on some videos on YouTube as well, called "The Momo Challenge".
Protect your kiddos! The internet is a dangerous place for them on a lot of levels!