Lawmakers call YouTube Kids a 'wasteland of vapid' content

Lawmakers call YouTube Kids a ‘wasteland of vapid’ content FILE – This April 25, 2018 file photo, the YouTube app and YouTube Kids app are displayed on an iPhone in New York. A House subcommittee is investigating YouTube Kids. In a letter sent Tuesday, April 6, 2021, to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy says YouTube isn’t doing enough to protect kids from material that could harm them. Jenny Kane By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer A House subcommittee is investigating YouTube Kids, saying the Google-owned video service feeds children inappropriate material in “a wasteland of vapid, consumerist content” so it can serve them ads.The inquiry comes despite Google agreeing to pay $170 million in 2019 to settle allegations that YouTube collected personal data on children without their parents’ consent.In a letter sent Tuesday to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, the U.S. House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy said YouTube does not do enough to protect kids from material that could harm them. Instead it relies on artificial intelligence and creators’ self-regulation to decide what videos make it on to the platform, according to the letter from the…
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