YouTube, a popular online video platform, has been implementing policies to regulate the viewing of videos by teenagers, but has not strictly enforced them. Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman from New York State recently co-signed a letter to the CEO of YouTube, urging the platform to take more measures to prevent harm to minors.
According to a report by Gothamist, YouTube’s user guidelines prohibit videos demonstrating how to make firearms, ammunition, or assemble gun components, and automatically bans any live streams showing possession, operation, or transportation of guns. It also prohibits users under 18 from viewing content related to firearms. However, a recent report by the non-profit watchdog group Tech Transparency Project revealed that a 14-year-old teenager successfully downloaded a tutorial video on how to modify a semi-automatic handgun to shoot like a machine gun using a test account in August this year.
In response to these findings, Goldman, along with 15 other congressional members, penned a letter to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, urging the company to address the issues of inadequate policy enforcement.
The letter cited another example from the Tech Transparency Project report, where a “teenage” test user only typed “how to assemble…” for a search query, and YouTube automatically suggested “how to assemble Glock handgun trigger.” Similarly, when the same user entered “how to 3D print…”, the platform suggested “how to 3D print Glock handgun trigger,” indicating that YouTube not only fails to verify user ages but actively recommends gun-related videos. Therefore, Goldman urged YouTube to take appropriate measures to ensure such instances do not occur and to set an example for other social media and digital media platforms to improve their practices.