Senate Hearing on the Safety of Children
The dystopian South Korean horror series "Squid Game" has become the most watched Netflix television show, but it is quickly becoming as controversial as it is popular.
The recent controversy over "Squid Game" that is rated TV MA in the United States, concerns the growing interest among young children. This includes warnings from an Australian school that children as young as 6 are re-creating games from the gory and dark show.
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A council in Southern England recently sent an email to parents asking them to "be vigilant" after receiving reports "young people are copying games and violence" from the show. In Australia, similar warnings have been issued by educators in Sydney and Western Australia.
The "Squid Game" features characters competing for cash prizes, participating in challenges that complement classic Korean children's games. The "losers," however, are killed at the end of each round. Further highlighting the show's twisted take on child's play, these games are staged in highly stylized arenas, like an adult-sized playground for children. These traditional playgrounds for children are often covered in blood and littered with corpses after each game. This show is a huge success in the digital world of children.
YouTube Kids has a variety of successful channels that benefit from the "Squid Game" trend. These channels are designed for viewers younger than 12. This YouTube content includes How to Draw "Squid Game" character videos, and "Squid Game" games with a theme from the online video game Roblox.
This video game, which is popular with children, allows players to program games and share them with other players.
The Roblox game "Squid Game", which is a well-loved theme has been extremely popular. Many Roblox videos featuring "Squid Game", have hundreds of thousands, if not millions , of views.
On both the kids' and main version of YouTube, videos aimed at children show users (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 trend on TikTok, with people emulating the game in a vast variety of real life settings and in videogames Roblox and Minecraft.
The "Red Light, Green Light" scene has become one of "Squid Game's" most shared moments: The massive animatronic doll acting as a deadly motion sensor in this game has been extensively popularized. The doll is often featured in video thumbnails for "Squid Game"-related children's YouTube content.
These YouTube videos featuring children are pretty harmless. However, they show how "Squid Game" has crept into digital content specifically aimed at young children. However the lines between adult-oriented and child-oriented content online were never clear.
YouTube has been the subject of numerous debates over inappropriate content targeted at children. TikTok has also been affected by similar concerns about children's security and inappropriate content watched by children. TikTok provides full access to the app for children older than 13, but reports show children much younger are using it: Alongside YouTube, TikTok is currently in the midst of 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 content for children and adult content. YouTube now requires creators to notify YouTube that their content is designed for children. Machine learning is used to identify videos with young viewers.
Despite these modifications, YouTube remains a very different beast to broadcast television, and content that is popular with children on both the main and children's version of the platform can differ significantly from children's TV.
YouTube content for children that riffs off "Squid Game" characters and scenes continue a long-running trend of "mashups" content for children.
Similar to "Squid Game" content "mashups" videos harness popular themes such as search terms, themes, and characters, often featuring famous characters in thumbnail imagery or video titles.
The "Squid Game" anxiety is echoed by the "Momo” phenomenon of 2018 and 2019. A photo of a sinister looking image went viral on the internet. The image was actually an authentic Japanese sculpture.
An international news cycle emerged about "Momo," claiming the creature was being featured in children's videos on YouTube and encouraging children to participate in deadly games and challenges.
As with "Squid Game", official warnings were sent to parents about "Momo Challenge" and advised them to be on guard. It quickly became apparent that the "Momo Challenge" is a viral hoax, was likely a ruse.
Momo was an emblem of parents' most feared fears regarding children's use of the internet. Concerns about "Squid Game's" influence on children share similar themes: These fears may not be a response to real dangers, but rather a manifestation of our discomfort with the ease with which adult-oriented media can be incorporated into online content aimed at young children.
The unruly tentacles of "Squid Game's" inter-generational appeal illustrate how streaming media challenges existing notions of "child-appropriate" content.
Adult anxieties regarding "Squid Game's" negative influence on children stem from earlier concerns about this "mashup" content as well as about children's interaction with the web more generally.
This article is republished by The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. You can find the original article here.
Jessica Balanzategui is a senior lecturer in screen studies and cinema at Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia. She is funded by the Australian Children's Television Foundation.