--- title: "Kids Are Watching Brain Melting AI-Generated Videos on YouTube Without Parents Realizing" description: "A new report reveals that YouTube is filling up with AI-generated kids' videos, designed to glean cash via lucrative toddler eyeballs." date: "2024-03-13" modified: "2024-03-13" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/kids-ai-generated-videos-youtube" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "ai" - "ai-generated content" - "the digest" - "YouTube" --- # Kids Are Watching Brain Melting AI-Generated Videos on YouTube Without Parents Realizing ![A new report reveals that YouTube is filling up with AI-generated kids' videos, designed to glean cash via lucrative toddler eyeballs.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Crossing Lines AI hustle bros are back at it. And this time, their [get-rich-quick schemes]() are gunning for your kids' still-forming brains. AI scammers are using generative tools to churn out bizarre and nonsensical YouTube kids' videos, a [troubling *Wired* report reveals](). The videos are often created in a style akin to that of the addictive hit YouTube and Netflix show Cocomelon, and are very rarely marked as AI-generated. And as *Wired* notes, given the ubiquity and style of the content, a busy parent might not bat an eye if this AI-spun mush — much of which is already garnering millions of views and subscribers on YouTube — were playing in the background. In other words, tablet-prone young children appear to be consuming copious amounts of brain-liquifying AI content, and parents have no clue. ## Cocomelon Hell As *Wired* reports, a simple YouTube search will return a [bevy]() [of]() [videos]() [from AI cash-grabbers]() teaching others how to use a combination of AI programs — OpenAI's ChatGPT for scripts, ElevenLabs' voice-generating AI, the Adobe Express AI suite, and many more — to create videos ranging in length from a few minutes to upwards of an hour. Some claim their videos are educational, but quality varies. It's also deeply unlikely that any of these mass-produced AI videos are being pushed out in consultation with childhood development experts, and if the goal is to make money through unmarked AI-generated fever dreams designed for consumption by media-illiterate toddlers, the "we're helping them learn!" argument feels pretty thin. Per *Wired*, researchers like Tufts University neuroscientist Eric Hoel are concerned about how this bleak combination of garbled AI content and prolonged screentime will ultimately impact today's kids. "All around the nation there are toddlers plunked down in front of iPads being subjected to synthetic runoff," the scientist [recently wrote]() on his Substack, *The Intrinsic Perspective*. "There's no other word but dystopian." YouTube told *Wired* that its "main approach" to counter the onslaught of AI-generated content filling its platform "will be to require creators themselves to disclose when they've created altered or synthetic content that's realistic." It also reportedly emphasized that it already uses a system of "automated filters, human review, and user feedback" to moderate the YouTube Kids platform. Clearly, though, plenty of automated kids' content is slipping through the self-reporting cracks. And some experts aren't convinced that this honor code approach is quite cutting it. "Meaningful human oversight, especially of generative AI, is incredibly important," Tracy Pizzo Frey, the media literacy nonprofit Common Sense Media's senior AI advisor, told *Wired*. "That responsibility shouldn't be entirely on the shoulders of families." **More on AI content:** [*OpenAI CTO Says It's Releasing Sora This Year*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()