YouTube Kids Not For Kids?

www.nytimes.com

Everyone knows that the internet is a scary place, definitely the last place innocent children should be. Parents and companies have been working together for years to develop different forms of protection to shield children from viewing inappropriate content on the web.

In 2015, YouTube seemed to find a perfect way for children to watch fun, age appropriate content, without the parent having to monitor every video that YouTube auto-plays for their child, by releasing YouTube Kids. In theory, this was an amazing idea. Now parents can hand their child an iPad, without the fear of the son or daughter viewing explicit, potentially harmful videos.

However, nothing can be perfect. Over time, dark, creepy videos have started popping up all over YouTube. How are these videos passing through YouTube's safety measures and getting into YouTube Kids?  This is because, these videos feature some of the most popular faces in children’s TV shows and movies. Characters such as Elsa, Paw Patrol, and Spiderman just to name a few. These videos not only feature sexually explicit content, which is already horrible enough on its own. As The New York Times author, Sapna

Maheshwari writes, there are even videos which feature suicide; she describesone video about Paw Patrol by saying, “some characters died, and onewalked off a roof after being hypnotized by a likeness of a doll possessed by ademon”.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/

The worst part is that these videos are getting millions of views. That means that the sick people who are creating them are making money off scaring children.

Another bad part about this situation is that YouTube can do very little to help fix the problem immediately. Thousands of hours of YouTube content gets uploaded every minute, so it is impossible for a person to skim through every video and make sure it is safe for children. The only thing that YouTube says they can do right now, is strengthen the algorithm which flags videos as age restricted content, and keeps them out of YouTube Kids, and to tell Parents and YouTube users to flag any inappropriate videos they see.

Sadly, many of these disgusting videos are still floating around the YouTube Kids app, and all parents are being told to do is watch their children more carefully. However, the app was created to eliminate the need for parents to become hawks who sit on their kids shoulders and watch every button they click. Telling a parent to simply watch their children more closely on an app meant for kids, is like telling someone to wash their clothes by hand first if their washing machine doesn’t clean them well enough. If YouTube Kids isn’t meant to block out inappropriate content for children, then the app is useless and should never have been created in the first place.     

What do you think? Should YouTube do more to try and keep only age appropriate content on their Kids app? Or is it the job of the parents to watch what their children are consuming? Comment down below!          

Links to where all this information what found: 

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/something-really-is-wrong-on-the-internet-time-to-fix-it/2017/11/13/4317a252-c89a-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html?utm_term=.16fd2e437c35
• https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/business/media/youtube-kids-paw-patrol.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_K-shDq-kM

War on Labels?

Google.com/images

For a while now, there has been a “war on labels” flowing through the internet. Whether the labels determine a person's race, religion, or sexual orientation, there has been a rise in people wishing to disregard the labels and just be themselves. Even Raven Symone told Oprah, back in 2014, “I'm an American; I'm not an African-American. I'm an American." (CNN). However, what does it mean to be “just yourself” and how can we define ourselves without a label?

While everyone is attacking labels, it can be hard to see that not all labels are bad or restricting. For instance, just being a dog or a cat person is a label. Even the type of music a person enjoys is a label in itself. However, the problem arises when people start to use simple labels, like music interest, to start defining every aspect of a person. Just because a person’s favorite music genre is pop-punk, that doesn’t mean that they will grow up to become a bank robber. The connection of these two things is crazy, and comes from a place of ignorance rather than logic.

In the same way that a person’s musical interest does not correlate to their criminal history, neither does any other label connect to other aspects of a person's life. Just because a person is visibly black on the outside, that single factor gives no other insight to who that person is. They could really enjoy painting, or they could own 15 cars. There is no way to tell by simply looking at the color of their skin.

It is sad that race has to be a thing people want to pretend doesn’t exist. Race can be a beautiful thing, especially when connected to culture. A person's race could give insight to cultures that have since gone extinct, yet have beautiful traditions which should have the chance to live on. Yet, because a few people can not seem to see past the narrow views they have about people and race, we must all be color blind and forget about the wonderful differences that do exist in each culture.

When it comes to religion, people should not be afraid to speak their mind. The main issue people have with religion, is that most people have a very defined stance on what they believe, and people are unsure of how to disagree without letting hatred for a person’s beliefs get in the way. Everyone should be allowed to express their thoughts and beliefs, however, those beliefs should never be forced on another person. It is okay to have disagreeing viewpoints on any topic in life, and it is okay to talk about those differences, especially since those differences make us who we are.  However, just because we have differences, doesn’t mean we can not still love the people who see differently than us. You would never yell hateful things at someone just for owning a different car than you. Same with religion.

Google.com/images

In regards to sexual orientation, whether a person chooses to be labeled is solely up to them, just as their sexual orientation is up to them. If an issue has no personal effect on another person’s life, then that person really has no right to attack them for it. It is okay to disagree, but at the end of the day, it is their life, not the other person’s.   

Labels are a part of everyday life, whether they are about a person's interest, or about a person’s life choices. However, these labels should never be used to define more about a person then what the label clearly states. If they say they like dogs, then that label means simply that, they like dogs. Not that they are more likely to cheat in a relationship. Labels don’t need to be taken away, people just need to stop using them to determine more than they blatantly state.  

What do you think? Should labels be used, or do they have no place?

• For more information about Oprah’s Raven Symone interview:      http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/06/showbiz/raven-symone-gay-labels/index.html

• For more information about the problem with labels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0qD2K2RWkc

Lady Gaga Too Fat?

Google.com

    On February 5 Lady Gaga performed at the Super Bowl halftime show. Her performance was nothing less than amazing! She flawlessly sang her greatest hits, and definitely lived up to the expectations set by past performers.

   

Google.com

Despite her amazing performance, people could not help but criticize her, particularly  her stomach.  There is no denying that Lady Gaga is in impeccable shape, however, this did not stop haters from shaming her for having a little tummy.  

   

Lady Gaga, being the wonderful person she is, took to Instagram to say that she, and no one else, should have to worry about other people's opinions about their body, and that she loves her body, and so should everyone else.

https://www.instagram.com/ladygaga/?hl=en

    Hopefully everyone can listen to Gaga’s message, since it is something we should apply to our lives everyday. Tearing people down is never the way to make yourself feel better. If someone has an issue with self love, they should focus on fixing the part of themselves that says they are not worth it. Tearing people down will never feel the void that self hatred can leaves. So why not be kind and loving to everyone, or at least not attack someone's appearance, since truth be told, an attack on the way someone looks is easy and cheap. Let’s all take a lesson from Gaga, and just focus on being the greatest and most beautiful people we can  be. Then maybe we could learn to love ourselves along the way.

Google.com 

 

PTSD Stigma

Recently singer Lady Gaga opened up about her mental health battle; disclosing her struggle with PTSD caused by sexual abuse at the age of 19. Journalist Piers Morgan felt the need to respond to Gaga’s vulnerability via twitter, even going as far as to call it “vain- glorious nonsense” and tried to claim that PTSD is an illness which only affects soldiers. Lady Gaga flawlessly and intelligently informed her audience of the misconceptions which Morgan was encouraging, however, the conversation about mental health is one that needs to be discussed.

During WWI, PTSD was known as “shell shock”, and it was only known to affect soldiers. Even today, some studies estimate that “1 in 5 military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan has PTSD”. However, around 70% of adults in the US have experienced some kind of traumatic event, and 20% of those people go on to develop PTSD. (Around 31.3 million people) A majority of people suffering from this disorder have never served anytime in the military.

Morgan’s accusation, about sexual abuse not linking to PTSD, is completely disproves once one looks at the facts that “71% of female military personnel develop PTSD due to sexual abuse within the ranks”. 71% of women risking their lives for their country, develop a mental illness due to SEXUAL ABUSE, yet Piers Morgan fails to recognise the traumatic effect any kind abuse can have on a person.

Sadly, Morgan’s ignorance continues to be prevalent in many people, since many are unaware of the magnitude of individuals affected by numerous mental illnesses. The first step that people should take towards becoming more educated on this topic, is simply researching different mental illnesses. Secondly, people should realize that the only people who have the right to determine a person’s mental state is the person themselves, or a licensed professional. To think that anyone can look at a random stranger, and determine how their mind works, is disrespectful and degrading to that person. They know how they feel, and to tell them they are wrong, will only do more damage than good.

Generalizations, such as the ones made by Piers Morgan, hold back any progress that has been made in mental health research. I encourage everyone to become enlightened about an issue that affects millions of people every day.

What do you think? Comment Below!

Websites used:

http://www.healmyptsd.com/education/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-statistics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6obMGPr_SUs

 http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7624428/lady-gaga-piers-morgan-interview-rape-ptsd

http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/news/a24205/lady-gaga-piers-morgan-twitter-feud/

In case you have a mental illness, and are seeking help:

http://www.crisistextline.org/

http://www.nami.org/

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/