YouTube is flooded with AI-generated “educational” videos for children, and many of the lessons they convey, even if the messages are recognizable, can be detrimental to children’s development.
is blocking new reports from 74 and mother jones We found numerous examples of AI-generated videos promoting utter nonsense or teaching harmful lessons to their target young audience.
In one video, which appears to be a nursery rhyme about cars, children ride without seatbelts and walk in the middle of the road with a moving car behind them.
Another AI-generated sing-song video about the 50 states of the United States asks children to learn about “Livio,” “Commecticat,” “Ochlorodia,” and “Lugislia,” but displays garbled state names that don’t match the audio.
Carla Engelbrecht, who has worked for children’s media brands such as Sesame Street and PBS Kids, has discovered other children’s AI videos showing babies swallowing grapes whole, which poses a choking hazard, and young children eating honey, which can be fatal. Another photo showed a baby eating an apple that was oozing blood.
It’s not hard to see how dangerous videos can be. Children may develop the idea that it’s okay to eat dangerous snacks or wander into the street. And with videos being released in abundance at a dizzying pace, parents are increasingly relying on platforms like YouTube to entertain their children.
“We’re at the beginning of a monstrous problem, and we need to figure it out quickly,” said Kathy Hirsch-Pasek, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Temple University. 74.
“This is not neutral content,” said Dana Susskind, a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago. “I see this as infantile AI misinformation on an industrial scale. It’s extremely dangerous for developing brains.”
Its exact extent is difficult to determine at this time. However, a report from video editing platform Kapwing is cited. 74 It is estimated that 21% of YouTube feeds are currently filled with poor AI content. The AI Nursery Rhymes About Cars channel has had more than 10,000 videos uploaded since its first upload about seven months ago, and averages about 50 new videos per day.
According to a recent survey, new york times Over 1,000 YouTube shorts recommended for young children also provide some insight. After creating a new account and watching popular traditional children’s channels, new york times We found that nearly half of the videos recommended by the platform contained AI visuals, suggesting either that the algorithm heavily favors AI slops, that slop sellers know how to manipulate AI, or that the content is surprisingly pervasive. Probably all of the above.
of new york times Similarly, the study found that most AI videos aimed at children claim to be educational, promising to teach them about animals or letters of the alphabet, but present contradictory information. And Engelbrecht warned that all kinds of “mixed signals” are slowing down children’s learning.
“Mixed signals mean we’re slower to learn the cause and effect of things,” Engelbrecht said. 74. “Once you learn that red is blue and blue is red, you’re behind.”
“If you’re not consistent, it takes that much longer to learn,” she added. “All of their delays mean they put everything else on the back burner. It takes their executive function offline and they go learn nonsense.”
Susskind, author of the forthcoming book Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity, and Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI, likened the cognitive effects to a “brain stunt,” an even worse form of brain rot, because children are in the early stages of cognitive development.
“Every experience builds a million new neural connections,” Susskind said. 74. “You end up inadvertently wiring your brain in the wrong direction.”
There are no AI videos highlighted in 74 The story was discovered while using YouTube Kids. new york times The report found many such examples. In any case, it is still targeted at children and many parents let their children use the platform with regular accounts. A YouTube spokesperson said: 74 Many of these videos clearly fall through the cracks, even though there are stricter “quality principles” in place for children’s content — a chasm widened by YouTube’s policy of requiring AI content to be labeled only if it looks “realistic” does not apply to the cartoonish style of the majority of these videos.
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