YouTube toughens policy on videos of weapons and young people; Critics say the proof will be in the application

WASHINGTON – YouTube is changing its policies on videos featuring firearms in an effort to prevent potentially harmful content from reaching underage users.

The Google-owned video-sharing platform said Wednesday it will ban any videos that demonstrate how to remove firearm safety devices. Additionally, videos showing homemade weapons, automatic weapons, and some firearm accessories such as silencers will be restricted to users 18 years of age or older.

The changes take effect June 18 and come after gun safety advocates repeatedly called on the platform to do more to ensure gun videos don’t reach the site’s youngest users, potentially traumatizing children or sending them to dark paths. of extremism and violence.

Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, said the change was good news and a step in the right direction. But she questioned why the platform took so long to issue a new policy and said her group will review how effectively YouTube enforces its new rule.

“Guns are the number one cause of death for children and teens in America,” said Paul, whose group has long sought stronger age controls on online gun videos. “As always with YouTube, the real proof of change is whether the company applies the policies it has on the books. Until YouTube takes real action to prevent videos about guns and gun violence from reaching minors, its policies will remain empty words.”

Last year, researchers from Paul’s group created YouTube accounts which imitated the behavior of 9-year-old American boys with a declared interest in video games. The researchers found that YouTube’s recommendation system forwarded graphic videos of school shootings, tactical weapons training videos, and instructions on how to make firearms fully automatic to these accounts.

One video featured a school-aged girl wielding a gun; another showed a gunman using a .50 caliber gun to shoot a mannequin head filled with realistic blood and brains. Many of the videos violated YouTube’s own policies against violent or bloody content.

YouTube said the policy changes were intended as an update to reflect new developments, such as 3D-printed weapons, which have become more available in recent years. YouTube requires users under the age of 17 obtain parental permission before using the site; Accounts for users under 13 are linked to the parental account.

“We regularly review our guidelines and consult with outside experts to ensure we are drawing the line in the right place,” said company spokesperson Javier Hernandez.

Along with TikTok, YouTube is one of the most popular websites for children and teenagers. Both sites were questioned in the past to host and, in some cases, promote videos that encourage gun violence, eating disorders and self-harm.

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