HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from The nightmare videos of childrens' YouTube — and what's wrong with the internet today | James Bridle Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

The nightmare videos of childrens' YouTube — and what's wrong with the internet today | James Bridle

96 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this talk1 month2018–2025 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited to explain how YouTube's algorithms produce appalling content aimed at children, and as a reason to keep kids off the platform.

Writer and artist James Bridle shows how strange and disturbing children's videos on YouTube, from surprise eggs to algorithmic mashups, are produced for ad revenue. He argues they reveal problems in a data-driven internet.

“This TED talk sums up why I'll never allow my child to go on YouTube.” (HN, 2018)

1 recommendations · 1 citations · 3 critical · Talks · partly dated

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@truebosko Oct 2018 Recommends
on HN thread ChuChu TV is responsible for widely-viewed toddler content on YouTube
Everytime I think of YouTube and kids I think of those bizarre videos featuring Elsa and Spiderman that are oddly disturbing and borderline erotic. This TED talk sums up why I'll never allow my child to go on YouTube. What a mess they've allowed. [this video]
Explains disturbing kids' content on YouTube.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@nlstitch Oct 2018 Cites it
on HN thread Twice as long – life expectancy around the world
Ouch man; no need to make this personal. Thanks for agreeing with me though. Here you go; 14% increase of confused people (dutch) ; [link] Living longer but sick longer; [link] [link] TED talk about children getting overstimulated by Youtube: [this video]
TED talk on children overstimulated by YouTube.
@frabcus Aug 2018 Pushes back
on HN thread Google tracks your movements, like it or not
Google's a monopoly in multiple areas by any reasonable definition. So yes, I hope they are being entangled in a Cambridge Analytica type scandal. It is the job of the press to do so. Personally, I think the YouTube recommendation algorithm is a huge problem. Once everyone understands it, that will be the relevant scandal. How YouTube's recommendation algorithm makes everyone more extreme, in all directions: [link] How YouTube's recommendation algorithm causes creation of appalling content targeted at children: [this video] It is harming our society in deep and scary ways.
@lm28469 Jul 2025 Pushes back
on HN thread YouTube to be included in Australia's social media ban for children under 16
> YouTube is such an invaluable learning resource that I would have serious qualms about denying a school-age child access to it. Give a 5 years old unlimited access to youtube and witness the cesspool it is. Nobody is saying youtube is 100% bad, but people who don't know better (kids for example) are easily manipulated in watching the most brain rot content you can imagine, for hours and hours. It's an ocean of shit within which you might find a few gems if you know what you want or if you get extremely lucky. [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close