YouTube makes changes to stop users from continuously watching harmful videos

YouTube is trying a new method to stop young people from falling into negative “wormholes” by repeatedly watching harmful videos.

YouTube is making changes to discourage people from getting stuck in negative “wormholes” by repeatedly watching harmful videos.

The video-sharing platform looked into insights from young people’s development last year and shared that some kinds of videos aren’t harmful or offensive when seen once, but become more damaging when viewed repeatedly.

Now, the Google-owned platform has developed ways of finding categories of videos that could be deemed problematic and is testing ways to spread out views of the videos.

Initially, the changes were made to two specific types of videos: social aggression and those that compare idealised physical features or body types.

But now, the changes are being rolled out to three other categories which include poor financial advice that takes advantage of young people who don’t have strong knowledge of the topic.

These include clips offering “get rich quick” schemes suggesting that youngsters buy a product such as lottery tickets to get money, taking advantage of those with poor financial education.

The platform is also cracking down on videos that “portray delinquency or negative behaviours” – such as cheating and lying or taking part in pranks – and clips that portray “teens as cruel and malicious or encourages them to ridicule others”, such as making fun of people.

The platform is also adding new features that will remind people to go to bed and take a break if they are watching for a long time.