YouTube’s symbolic effort for safer content

YouTube introduces changes to lessen teenagers’ exposure to harmful video content, by not recommending videos that idealize certain body types if a user has been repeatedly watching such content. Kathrine Elmose Jørgensen from Børns Vilkår doubts the impact of these changes, highlighting that many children use YouTube without an account and can still search for unpleasant content. Børns Vilkår often receives calls about disturbing content such as violence or self-harm. Google-owned YouTube insists on removing harmful content, having taken down 8.5 million videos last quarter for violating its guidelines. Despite these efforts, the algorithm change does not prevent content like violence or self-harm from appearing because such videos are technically banned and shouldn’t be present.