YouTube is trying new ways to stop young people falling into harmful “wormholes”.
Last year, YouTube noted that some kinds of videos might be innocuous when seen once, but could become damaging when teens watch them repeatedly. It said that it had based that view on insights from teens’ development.
In response, it developed ways of finding those categories of videos that might prove problematic, and then worked on ways to spread views of those videos out. Initially, the changes were made to two specific kinds of videos: social aggression, and those that compare idealised physical features or body types.
Now it says it is rolling out those features to three other categories. Those videos too might be fine as a one-off but could become dangerous if users fall into those “wormholes” of watching them repeatedly, YouTube said.
That will include unrealistic and bad financial advice, such as videos offering “get rich quick” schemes. That might include videos suggesting people buy a kind of product such as lottery tickets to get money, taking advantage of teens who might have low financial literacy.
It will do the same with videos that “portray delinquency or negative behaviors”, such as cheating and lying or taking part in pranks. It will also look to disrupt wormholes of videos that portray “teens as cruel and malicious or encourages them to ridicule others”, such as making fun of people, it said.
YouTube will also add new features to remind people to go to bed and take a break if they are watching for a long time.
