(Washington) YouTube is changing its gun video policies to prevent potentially harmful content from reaching underage users.
The Google-owned video-sharing platform announced Wednesday that it would ban any videos showing how to remove safety devices from firearms. Additionally, videos showing homemade weapons, automatic weapons and certain firearm accessories like silencers will be restricted to users 18 and 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 younger users of the site. They consider these videos to be potentially traumatic for children or risk sending them down dark paths of extremism and violence.
Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, said the change was welcome news and a step in the right direction. But she questioned why it took the platform so long to release a new policy and said her group would review how effectively YouTube enforced its new rule.
“As always with YouTube, the real proof of change is whether the company is enforcing the rules it has in its records. Until YouTube takes concrete steps to prevent videos about guns and gun violence from reaching minors, its policies will remain empty words. »
Last year, researchers in Ms. Paul’s group created YouTube accounts mimicking the behavior of 9-year-old American boys with a stated interest in video games. Researchers found that YouTube’s recommendation system served these accounts with explicit videos of school shootings, tactical weapons training videos, and how-to instructions for making fully automatic firearms.
One video featured a school-age girl brandishing a handgun; another showed a shooter using a .50-caliber pistol to shoot a dummy head filled with realistic fake blood and brains. Many of the videos violated YouTube’s own policies on violent or gory content.
YouTube said the rule changes were intended as an update to reflect new developments, like 3D printed weapons, which have become more available in recent years. YouTube requires users under the age of 17 to obtain parental permission before using its site; accounts for users under 13 are linked to the parental account.
“We regularly review our guidelines and consult with external experts to ensure we are placing the limit in the right place,” explained company spokesperson Javier Hernández.
Along with TikTok, YouTube is one of the most popular sites among children and adolescents. Both sites have been implicated in the past for hosting and, in some cases, promoting videos encouraging gun violence, eating disorders and self-harm.
Several perpetrators of recent mass shootings have used social media and video streaming platforms to glorify violence, foreshadow, or even livestream their attacks.