下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
YouTube有一套独特的视频推荐算法来吸引用户持续观看视频，孩子们尤其易受其影响。但YouTube并没有有效的算法来查找并排除对儿童不利的内容。有用户发现，YouTube上的儿童视频节目中也含有大量暴力、恐怖等不良内容。我们该怎样保护孩子们？
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
hillock ['hɪlək] n. 小丘，土堆
mallet ['mælɪt] n. 木槌，球棍
susceptible [sə'septəbl] adj. 易受影响的
complicit [kəm'plɪsɪt] adj. 同谋的
pester ['pestə（r）] v. 使烦恼
阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。
This holiday season, a seven-year-old called Ryan could be compiling your child's Christmas list. By piling toys into a kid-sized hillock of consumerism, this YouTube sensation has attracted 9.7 million subscribers. “Ryan ToysReview”, started by his parents when Ryan was just three and a half, enjoys one of the largest followings on YouTube, on a par with popular influencers such as ZoellA.Ryan now has his own Android app and has signed a deal with Pocket.Watch, a kid's entertainment company, to create books and merchandise.
In his most famous video, which has almost 800 million views, his mum wakes Ryan from a red car-shaped bed, merchandise from the Disney movie Cars. She presents him with a Cars-branded egg the size of a pilates ball. Emerging from under a blanket with a Cars motif, he picks up an inflatable Cars-themed mallet and breaks the egg open to reveal toys. Behind the camera, his mother whoops and commentates.
Ryan ToysReview is one of a new youthful YouTube genre — others are EvanTubeHD and Hailey's Magical Playhouse. Ryan himself makes the most of the memes that you only know if you have a small YouTube-watcher: the “surprise egg” with a grand reveal, the bad kid/bad baby joke, or the finger family, where he pretends his fingers are people. These memes help children to discover his channel. And once they have watched one surprise egg video, YouTube's algorithm serves up more in the “Up Next” sidebar, where “surprise egg” has more than 10 million results.
The tech industry is under scrutiny for how its algorithms manipulate adults but little attention has been paid to how algorithms seduce children, who are far more susceptible than their parents. Children often lack the self-control or even the means to change the channel.
Ryan's channel is innocent but the algorithms that deliver it have encouraged what appear to be almost automated videos, in which favourite characters, key words and memes are combined in a haphazard way designed to game YouTube's rankings, rather than teach through coherent stories.
More worryingly, some videos include adult content, disguised with all the trimmings of a kids' show. James Bridle, a British artist and writer, recently delved into the world of YouTube content aimed at children. Disturbingly, he found familiar characters committing violence — in one, cheery music plays while clowns hit Spiderman and the Hulk, and Death creeps up behind Spiderwoman as she sits on the sofa.
Bridle was horrified, accusing YouTube and Google of being complicit in this system. “The architecture they have built to extract maximum revenue from online video is being hacked by persons unknown, to abuse children, perhaps not deliberately, but at a massive scale,” he wrote in a blog post.
Other videos include people using their kids as props. YouTube recently terminated the channel ToyFreaks, where a father posted videos of his daughters screaming in fear and being force-fed food, but not before it had eight million followers. Last week, BuzzFeed found a host of videos featuring kids being pushed into washing machines or mock-tortured by men in clown masks.
YouTube says it has taken steps recently to tackle such challenges, including ensuring that creators that use family entertainment characters in scenarios involving inappropriate behaviour cannot make money from their videos.
The company encourages parents to only allow children to watch through the YouTube Kids app, which has more rules and controls. But even YouTube Kids does not have its own team of human reviewers, instead relying on parents to flag inappropriate content for removal.
Ryan's brand of consumerism may put off those who dream of a Christmas where children read books and build model railways. But compared to the videos uncovered by Bridle, he is just showcasing good old-fashioned pester power. The effect YouTube's algorithm could have on what else children watch is much more sinister.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
A.It has 9.7 million subscribers, which is the largest on YouTube.
B.It is a channel of a three and a half years old boy and his parents.
C.The most popular video in this channel has nearly 800 million views.
D.The channel is sponsored by entertainment company Pocket.Watch.
答案 (1)
A.YouTube has a special algorithms for children to make them addicted to videos.
B.It's difficult for children to take full control of themselves or change the channel.
C.Adults can flag inappropriate content and ask YouTube to remove the videos.
D.YouTube has been taking steps recently to tackle with inappropriate adult content.
答案 (2)
A.Because he found many videos featuring kids being pushed in washing machines.
B.Because he found the channel ToyFreaks, where a father used his kids as props.
C.Because he found YouTube's algorithms recommend violent videos deliberately.
D.Because he found inappropriate content in videos aimed at kids on YouTube.
答案 (3)
A.Supportive. Because it has flagged and removed illegal content for children.
B.SatisfieD.Because it introduces a better censorship system to protect children.
C.Incredulous. Because it lacks effective measure to spot inappropriate content.
D.Sceptical. Because it allows parents to flag inappropriate videos and delete them.
答案 (4)
(1) 答案：C.The most popular video in this channel has nearly 800 million views.解释：这个频道中最著名的视频有将近970次播放。其中Ryan的妈妈将他从一个红色汽车造型的床上叫起来。
(2) 答案：B.It's difficult for children to take full control of themselves or change the channel.解释：相比父母们，儿童更容易受到这种算法的影响。孩子往往缺乏自制力，甚至不知道该如何换频道。
(3) 答案：D.Because he found inappropriate content in videos aimed at kids on YouTube.解释：James Bridle最近深入研究了YouTube上针对儿童的内容，令人不安的是，他发现了很多熟悉的角色实施暴力的视频。他指责YouTube和Google是这些不良视频的共谋。
(4) 答案：C.Incredulous. Because it lacks effective measure to spot inappropriate content.解释：YouTube Kids应用有更详细的规则和更严格的控制，但即使是这个应用也没有人工审核团队，而是靠父母将不良内容标记出来再删除。