Experts call on Google to ban Youtube AI videos for kids

Alphabet Inc.’s Google faces pressure from child development experts to stop AI-generated videos from being shown or recommended to children on YouTube and YouTube Kids.

More than 200 experts, organisations, and educational institutions wrote a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan on Wednesday, expressing their concerns about the educational value and quality of AI videos targeting children. 

Experts believe that such videos, made in bulk for financial gain, could be detrimental to children’s attention span and social skills.

The experts wrote that most AI videos could be classified as AI slop, which might cause children to question what’s real and what’s not. The experts, including social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, Fairplay, and the National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health, wrote that YouTube should stop AI videos targeting toddlers.

They believe that children’s screen time, watching poor-quality AI videos, is replacing real-world experiences that help children’s emotional and social development.

YouTube demands that users identify modified or artificial content and has measures against spammy videos made using AI. YouTube CEO stated in January that managing AI content was a top priority.

However, child advocates say that such identifications are useless for young children, as they cannot read or comprehend them. In March, Google invested in Animaj, an AI animation studio that creates content targeting children, which experts say should not be shown to young children, including toddlers.

The campaign comes at a time when there has been increasing scrutiny of social media companies. In recent court rulings, Google and Meta Platforms Inc. have been held liable for social media addiction among young users.