Terrifying truth about what your child watches on
From clips glamorising eating disorders to sinister videos masquerading as cartoons ...
a full library of how-to guides by other users, including: ‘Ten tips for first-time weed smokers’ and ‘How to inject heroin’.
Despite criticism from MPs and drugs charities about Drugs Lab, YouTube says: ‘Whilst YouTube has clear policies against content that encourages people to do dangerous or harmful things, we make exceptions for content with clear educational or documentary value.
‘We’re proud to be a place that people can visit to find information on a range of subjects.’
CCTV THAT GLORIFIES GANG FIGHTS
VioLence between children and young people is another popular form of YouTube entertainment.
There are hundreds of videos of school fights in which opponents, still in uniform, are surrounded by onlookers, filming on phones.
other videos take ccTV footage of gang members stabbing each other and glorify it, adding rap soundtracks.in further chilling clips, gang members film themselves rapping about violence and mimicking shooting.
earlier this year, Britain’s top police office cressida Dick called on YouTube to take down online material inflaming gang violence. Yet since 2015, YouTube has removed only 38 per cent of videos reported to it by the Metropolitan Police. YouTube says it does not want to take down videos if they are examples of ‘free and creative expression’. A spokesman said: ‘We work closely with organisations like the Metropolitan Police to understand where artistic expression escalates into real threats.’
THE SLOW-MO SUICIDE VIDEOS
YouTuBe has become a popular place for clips of young people killing themselves. While some are faked, many are all too real and show people jumping off buildings or lying in front of trains. Some are shown in slow motion and greeted with comments like: ‘i want to kill myself — that’s why i am here.’ others are presented in compilations or under the guise of ‘news’ by amateur TV presenters.
Ged Flynn of Papyrus, a charity working to prevent young suicide, called on YouTube to do more to remove these videos. He says: ‘Anyone who knowingly puts information online which displays selfinflicted death is creating grief for others and information and imagery that will lead to harm or death of other young vulnerable people.
‘For years, internet service provides have said: “We’re just the railway track carrying the goods.” Well no, you provide the railway track so people can put these goods out there. We can not sit by and watch people upload suicide material which others will simulate.’
CRUEL CHALLENGES AND PRANK VIDEOS
‘ cHALLenGeS’ on YouTube spread fast through schools. A ‘duct tape challenge’ encouraged children to tape each other to posts — and last year one boy in the u.S. suffered a crushed eye socket trying to break free.
This summer, doctors raised concern over the ‘deodorant challenge’. Participants uploaded clips of themselves spraying aerosol deodorant as close as possible to their skin for as long they could bear, sometimes resulting in burns.
Another dare, the ‘cinnamon challenge’, encouraged young people to film themselves eating a spoonful of cinnamon. Dry cinnamon coats the inside of the mouth, becomes difficult to swallow, and can trigger vomiting. The American Academy of Pediatrics reported children and teenagers have been hospitalised due to respiratory complications from the challenge.
HIP-BONE SNAPS THAT NORMALISE ANOREXIA
iT TAkeS seconds on YouTube to find images encouraging young people to starve themselves. There’s ‘thinspiration’ videos — pictures of jutting hip-bones, thigh gaps and stick limbs — for occasions ranging from ‘back to school’ to ‘coming up to summer’, all set to uplifting dance tracks.
comments reveal the effect on viewers, with remarks such as: ‘it’s everything i want to be, but never can.’
Psychologist Deanne Jade, founder of the national centre for eating Disorders, says the ready availability of the materials represents a worrying trend. ‘it breaks my heart to see this. ‘This used to be hidden. now no one seems to be worried about posting it, making this look normal.’ Picture: ALAMY (POSED BY MODELS)