‘New YouTube algorithm should make child-friendly content more visible’
YouTube is said to have made changes to its search algorithms, making content that is known to be child-friendly more findable. The change may have been made to accommodate the US FTC.
The changes are said to have been made last month and should make it easier for parents to find “quality content” for kids. YouTube has not publicly announced this, but according to Bloomberg news agency, the changes have been made quietly. This may have been done after pressure from the American watchdog FTC, which is investigating concerns that children on YouTube would easily come into contact with harmful content.
As a result of altering the algorithm, some content creators have reported seeing significantly less traffic on their videos. For example, Family Video Network told Bloomberg that most of the changes to YouTube’s algorithms didn’t change the views of videos much, but this time saw a big turnaround in traffic; significantly fewer children came to watch the videos. Another creator saw traffic drop by as much as 98 percent. There are also video makers who actually saw the traffic increase.
Video makers would not have been informed of the changes in advance. However, the adjustment may have major consequences, as findability is an important indicator for some video makers of the income they can earn with their videos. Incidentally, there are also YouTube users who indicate that they suddenly receive recommendations for children’s videos after the changes, despite the fact that they do not normally watch such videos. Although YouTube confirmed that it had made a change, it did not provide further details. As a result, it is not entirely clear what the changes to the algorithm are based on, and how Google defines quality content exactly.
YouTube was in the news some time ago because of videos that appear to be for children, but contain content that is not suitable for them. Shortly thereafter, a rumor surfaced that YouTube might consider moving all children’s videos to the recently launched YouTube Kids.