Click at Your Own Risk

While YouTube does offer its share of redeeming content, it’s important to consider the site’s darker side before your family starts clicking. A dependence on user-generated content means its offerings are only as wholesome as its weakest members’ morals. Teens can accidentally stumble on offensive material. For example, a clip called “The F.N.G.R.” (a secret agent parody featuring a man with a bionic middle finger) was recently spotlighted on the site’s home page. In less than five minutes, curious viewers experience blood, violence, lewd sexual dialogue and constant exposure to an obscene gesture.

Speaking of obscene gestures, even a whimsical rendition of The Who’s My Generation, sung by a chorus of gray-but-spry Brits, ends with one man defiantly giving the camera the finger. Who would’ve expected such a thing? No one, especially since YouTube itself provides no warning labels or ratings for age-appropriateness. Offensive material is sometimes innocently titled. And while the site does allow users to “flag as inappropriate” certain videos, the tolerance level is extremely high. Even after 100,000 views, no one saw fit to flag "Pesto," a mob serial loaded with f-words.

Of equal concern are user-response videos and comments accompanying each posting. They appear to go largely unpatrolled, meaning that profane content can appear alongside even harmless clips.

It’s one thing for the morally minded to take a wrong turn, but the risks don’t end there. Teens’ curiosity can lead them into dangerous places — all neatly indexed by search term. A search of “breasts” for example yields more than 27,000 videos, “penis” more than 15,300. The site also serves as a rage page for troubled youth, as in a high-profile case in October 2006 when two students in Nebraska posted a threat-filled video directed at their high school.

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