Local58TV’s Chris Straub edits the videos in a “found image” style and has absolutely nothing in it for kids. Sometimes it’s just a bunch of noise and radio interference. In one, for example, you can see a photograph of unknown and clearly man-made objects on the moon, a spooky humanoid figure, and more. At the same time, it is always stated in the description of the videos that they were shot according to a pre-written script.

No kids videos

• Chris Straub checked his account last week and discovered that its content had been marked as “for kids” by YouTube’s artificial intelligence.
• This means that their videos are no longer only recommended as likes after watching other videos, but can also be viewed via YouTube Kids, a separate safe interface for child viewers.
• Local58TV has millions of views on each of its nine videos and is famous enough to have a Wikipedia page.
• The channel’s “About” section describes it as “disturbing shorts in a found footage/VHS aesthetic”.
• “Unforeseen Circumstances”, the channel’s most popular video, is a fake announcement from the “US Department of American Dignity”. The message is made in the style of mid-twentieth century television, announcing that America has lost the war and is forced to surrender. But with the arrival of the invaders, you can “take America with you” by killing your family. After that, the video continues with instructions. Honestly, this isn’t the type of channel for kids.
• Another video was flagged as “for kids” by the service, possibly because of its title: “Show for kids”. This black and white video shows skeletons, a cemetery with many graves, a deep dark cave and death, with distorted music. i wonder what it is the creator of the video first manually set the age rating of “18+”.

Chris Straub filed an appeal to rectify the situation, because YouTube does not allow the author to change anything after the intervention of algorithms. However, it still awaits an answer.

ArsTechnica states that YouTube does not suffer without money. Last year, for example, the service earned almost $29 billion. However, unlike AI, it continues to save on its employees by not hiring human moderators who will quickly recognize that these are disturbing and creepy videos.