Google-owned YouTube continues to stream gun-related videos to minors even after it claims to have tightened its controls, according to a warning report from a watchdog group released Wednesday.
YouTube updated its firearms policy on June 18 to include age restrictions on “the use of homemade firearms, automatic weapons, and certain firearm accessories,” but earlier this month videos that violated the policy were still viewable by minors. This was revealed by an investigation by the Tech Transparency Project.
A test YouTube account set up for a fictitious 14-year-old boy displayed videos that should have been blocked under policy, and YouTube's search autofill feature, which suggests potential queries to users, also “directed minors to restricted firearms content,” according to the TTP report.
Videos posted to the account included homemade silencers, including a Glock “switch” that can turn a semi-automatic pistol into a fully automatic pistol, 3D printed weapons known as “ghost guns,” and a handgun that “fires with a plastic soda bottle duct-taped over the barrel.”
“YouTube may have generated positive press by promising to restrict certain types of firearm content aimed at minors, but TTP's investigation finds that YouTube has not effectively implemented these changes,” the group said in a blog post.
The investigation comes at a time of intense scrutiny from Congress over big tech companies' failure to keep kids safe online. Last month, the Senate passed the Child Online Safety Act, which would impose legal obligations on social media apps like Instagram and YouTube to crack down on harmful content.
Critics of the bill and other efforts to moderate underage content say such laws could infringe on free speech.
Reached for comment, YouTube said it was reviewing the report and had already taken action, such as age-restricting some videos featuring assault rifles. The company also removed some videos that promoted the sale of prohibited firearms paraphernalia and demonetized videos that violated YouTube's advertising guidelines.
The company added that enforcement and detection of videos that violate its age restriction policies will improve over time.
“YouTube has strict policies that govern what kind of firearm-related content can appear and be monetized on YouTube, as well as policies regarding what content younger audiences are allowed to watch,” YouTube spokesman Javier Hernandez said in a statement. “We update these policies from time to time to reflect current circumstances, as we did earlier this year.”
The TTP conducted the test on August 7. The researchers used a private Google Chrome browser account with no search history.
To test the gun video restrictions, researchers typed in relevant search terms to bring up Google's autofill suggestions and clicked “Enter” to see the full results.
Following Google's suggested search term “Glock switch,” the top result was a video titled “G17 with drums and switch” and a heart-eyes emoji, with nearly 1 million views.
TTP said in its testing it found only one example of a Glock Switch video that displayed the message, “Sorry, this content is age restricted.”
“This is the only time in our research that YouTube has placed barriers to viewing age-restricted firearm content,” the group said.
