Notes

Senate Hearing on Kids' Safety

The dystopian South Korean horror series "Squid Game" has been named the most-watched television show however, it is fast becoming as controversial as it is a hit.



The recent controversy surrounding "Squid Game", which is rating TV MA in the United States, concerns the increasing interest of children. This includes warnings from an Australian school that children as younger than 6 are creating games featured in the dark and violent hit show.



A council in Southern England recently sent an email to parents, urging parents to "be vigilant" after receiving reports that "young people are copying games and violence" from the show. Similar warnings were issued in Australia by teachers from Western Australia and Sydney.



The "Squid Game" is a show where characters compete for cash prizes by engaging in games that are a variation on classic Korean children's games. The "losers," however, are killed at the conclusion of each round. These games, which emphasise the show's bizarre approach to children's play, are played in highly stylized arenas such as a large-sized playground for children. These traditional play areas for children are often left covered in blood and littered with corpses after every challenge. This show is a huge success in the world of digital children.



YouTube Kids has many popular channels that profit from the "Squid Game" trend. These channels are for viewers younger than 12. This YouTube content includes How to Draw "Squid Game" character videos, as well as "Squid Game" themed gameplay videos from online video game Roblox.



This video game, which is popular among children, allows users to program games and share them with other users.



The Roblox game "Squid Game" is a well-loved theme has been very popular. Many Roblox videos that feature "Squid Game", have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views.



On both the main and kids' version of YouTube, videos aimed at children show children (often children) playing these "Squid Game" inspired games in Roblox and Minecraft, with the "Red Light, Green Light" challenge becoming a wildly popular trend. This challenge is also a popular trend on TikTok, with people emulating the game in a wide variety of real-life settings as well as in videogames like Roblox and Minecraft.



The "Red Light, Green Light" scene has been deemed to be one of "Squid Game's" most shared moments: The gigantic animatronic doll that functions as a dangerous motion sensor in this game has been extensively popularized. The doll is frequently featured in video thumbnails for "Squid Game"-related children's YouTube content.



Most of these kids' YouTube videos are pretty harmless by themselves. However, they show how "Squid Game" has been incorporated into digital content explicitly targeting young children. However, the lines between child-oriented and adult-oriented content online were never clear.



YouTube has been the subject of numerous debates over inappropriate content targeted towards children. 979uc TikTok has been a target of similar controversy concerning the safety of children using the app and problematic content being viewed by children including anti-vaccine videos. TikTok allows full access to the app for children older than 13, however, there are reports that show children younger are using it. Alongside YouTube, TikTok is currently facing a U.S. Senate hearing on children's safety.



In the year 2019, YouTube was hit with a fine of $170 million. The changes were implemented to clarify the distinction between adult and child content. For instance, creators now have to be able to inform YouTube that their content is intended for children and machine learning is used to determine videos that clearly target young audiences.



YouTube is a different platform than broadcast television. YouTube's content is extremely popular for children and can be quite different from the children's television.



Children's YouTube content that riffs on "Squid Game" characters and scenes continues a long-running trend of "mashup" content for children on the platform.



Similar to "Squid Game" content, "mashup" videos harness popular themes, search terms and characters - often featuring popular characters in thumbnails and video titles.



The "Squid Game" anxiety is echoed by the "Momo phenomenon of 2018 and 2019. In this instance an image of a sinister figure that was later attributed to the moniker "Momo" became viral on the internet (the image was actually of an actual Japanese sculpture).



International news media covered "Momo," which claimed that the creature was featured in children's videos on YouTube and urged them to take part in dangerous games and challenges.



Similar to "Squid Game" official warnings were sent out to parents regarding "Momo Challenge" and advised them to be on guard. It was soon clear that the "Momo Challenge" was probably an online hoax.



Momo represented parents' worst fears about the dangers of children's internet usage. The worry about "Squid Game"'s influence on children has a similar tenor. These fears may not be a response to actual dangers, but rather an expression of our displeasure at the ease with which adult-oriented media can infiltrate websites that are geared towards young children.



The unruly tentacles of "Squid Game's" inter-generational appeal show how streaming media challenges existing conceptions of "child-appropriate" content.



Adult concerns regarding "Squid Game"'s harmful influence on children are based on earlier concerns about this "mashup", but also about children's interactions with the internet in general.



This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. You can find the original article here.



Jessica Balanzategui is a senior lecturer in cinema and screen studies at Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia. She receives funding from the Australian Children's Television Foundation.


Homepage: https://979uc.com/