Children see manipulative marketing videos on You. Tube. Children are being conned into watching hours of advertisements disguised as entertainment on You. Tube, according to a new study. Parents have been warned that thousands of videos containing violent and disturbing content is manipulating youngsters without them realising. Scientists looked at almost 1. You. Tube as an alternative to TV and found many contained inappropriate marketing content. Scroll down for video. Parents have been warned thousands of You. Tube videos containing violent and disturbing content is manipulating youngsters without them realising stock imageWHAT DID THEY DO Scientists collected data from 1. US and UK as well as 2. Brazil. In total, these channels had been viewed more than 3. They looked at almost 1. You. Tube as an alternative to TV and found many contained inappropriate marketing content. Search or upload videos. Popular on YouTube Music, Sports, Gaming, Movies, TV Shows, News, Spotlight. Browse Channels. Children are being tricked into watching manipulative marketing videos on YouTube that show inappropriate content. Scientists looked at almost 13,000 videos watched. Luke Plunkett. Luke Plunkett is a Contributing Editor based in Canberra, Australia. Publisher Templates Tickets on this page. He has written a book on cosplay, designed a game about airplanes, and also runs. Scientists from Harvard University and the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil found the most popular channels had advertising content that was disguised as other content. Most of the digital services offered on the internet are advertising funded, which makes advertising ubiquitous in childrens everyday life, researchers said in their paper Characterising videos, audience and advertising in Youtube channels for kids. Scientists collected data from 1. US and UK as well as 2. Brazil. In total, these channels had been viewed more than 3. Although the minimum age for using You. Tube is 1. 3, researchers found children younger than this were also using the video sharing site. Millions of children are already watching videos on You. Tube, most of them logged in from their parents accounts, researchers found. Thousands of You. Tube videos that contain violent and disturbing content are posing as kids cartoons. This image shows a Peppa Pig fake that depict the character being attacked by zombiesThere are several types of ads, researchers explained. For example, advergames are video games created by a company with the intention of promoting the company itself or its products. These games are often distributed freely on the site as a marketing tool. Although You. Tube Kids has strict rules on blocking inappropriate content it cannot block adverts that are hidden as entertainment. They use popular Youtubers to pitch products and brands as non commercial content in videos that are viewed worldwide. Some of these videos can be watched through You. Tube Kids an automated app that is supposed to filter out inappropriate videos. This image shows a still from a vioent video posing as a Doc Mc. Stuffins cartoon. HOW TO FILTER OUT THE VIDEOSThe You. Tube Kids app filters out most, but not all, of the disturbing videos. You. Tube recommends changing channel settings to restricted mode. This can be found at the bottom of You. Tube pages next to the language and content location buttons. The company also suggests turning off the search feature in the app. But it says that no filter is 1. The NSPCC offers online safety advice for parents with young children. Characterizing and understanding these strategies and their effectiveness is a key task for making the internet and the web a better place for children, researchers said. Tom Petty Live Anthology Download Youtube' title='Tom Petty Live Anthology Download Youtube' />Children using the platform are exposed to different challenges, as advertising, inappropriate content, privacy issues and crimes in the digital world, which raise concerns about compliance with regulations in several countries, the study found. You. Tube has been contacted for comment. Earlier this year an investigation found thousands of videos that contain violent and disturbing content are posing as cartoons. Many of the shocking clips look like normal childrens cartoons on You. Tubes homepage. One disturbing Peppa Pig fake, found by journalist Laura June, shows a dentist with a huge syringe pulling out the characters teeth as she screams in distress. Mrs June only realised the violent nature of the video as her three year old daughter watched it beside her. Who Its Best For Sports fans looking for a streaming alternative. This sportscentric service offers a mix of live and ondemand channels from broadcast networks. In July last year, clips showing Peppa Pig characters with knives and guns appeared on the You. Tube Kids app. In one, a cig smoking, knife toting gangster pig threatens the fairy princess from kids favourite Ben and Hollys Little Kingdom picturedPeppa does a lot of screaming and crying and the dentist is just a bit sadistic and its just way, way off what a three year old should watch, she said. But the animation is close enough to looking like Peppa its crude but its close enough that my daughter was like This is Peppa Pig. Another video depicted Peppa Pig and a friend deliberately burning down a house with someone in it. All of these videos are easily accessed by children through You. Tubes search results or recommended videos. Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens, marketed as Star Wars The Force Awakens, is the. Deadspin. 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