Elsagate (derived from Elsa and the -gate scandal suffix) is a controversy surrounding videos on YouTube and YouTube Kids that were categorized as "child-friendly", but contained themes inappropriate for children. These videos often featured fictional characters from family-oriented media, sometimes via crossovers, used without legal permission. The controversy also included channels that focused on real-life children, such as Toy Freaks, that raised concern about possible child abuse.
Most videos in this category were produced either with live action or Flash animation, but some used claymation or computer-generated imagery.[1] The videos were sometimes tagged in such a way as to circumvent YouTube's child safety algorithms, and some appeared on YouTube Kids. These videos were difficult to moderate due to the large scale of YouTube.[2] In order to capture search results and attract attention from users, their buzzword titles and descriptions featured the names of the fictional characters, as well as keywords such as "education", "learn colors", and "nursery rhymes".[3][4][5] They also included automatically placed commercials, making them lucrative to their owners and YouTube.[3]
Public awareness of the phenomenon grew in late 2017. That year—after reports on child safety on YouTube by several media outlets—YouTube adopted stricter guidelines regarding children's content. In late November, the platform deleted channels and videos falling into the Elsagate category, as well as large amounts of other inappropriate videos or user comments relating to children.[6] While these efforts, intended to wipe the platform of Elsagate-related media, curbed much of the older content, as of the 2020s similar videos and channels (this time utilizing video games popular with children) have been found to remain pervasively accessible to children on YouTube.[7][8]
Violent YouTube Cartoons Exploit Children's Favorite Horror Characters
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