YouTube called out after suggesting Jordan Peterson video to a child

YouTube has been called out by a user after a Jordan Peterson video was recommended to his toddler.

Twitter user and YouTube creator David Doel posted about his experiences using the app on his TV after seeing an unexpected video suggested on his account's page.

A screenshot showed children’s TV clips recommended by the viewing algorithm, right next to a video from the Jordan B Peterson clips account called “Craft your words carefully".

David wrote: “YouTube suggesting a Jordan Peterson video on the account used for my toddler where nothing but kids videos and music has ever been played.”

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

The official @TeamYouTube support account replied to David by writing: “Your activity on YouTube, Google, and Chrome may influence your YouTube search results, recommendations on the home page, in-app notifications, and suggested videos among other places.”

When David replied pointing out that the recommendation came through on the television app, the account replied: “You can remove recommended content by selecting ‘Not interested’. using this feature changes how YouTube suggests vids in the future. all the steps.”

Others also shared their own similar experiences in the Twitter thread.

One user wrote: “My child gets the worst ads on his YouTube that definitely have nothing to do with kids or anything else searched on our other apps. There will be 30 minute ads. They ONLY play on kids videos.”

The @TeamYouTube replied to them by saying “You can remove/block ads that you dislike with these steps,” before adding a link.

Another added: “What pattern of video watching could possibly cause the system to suggest exclusively toddler learning videos and "How You Become More Articulate" videos, with *nothing in between*? How can you pretend this is the system working correctly?”

indy100 has reached out to David Doel for further comment.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.