YouTube’s impact on society has been growing in recent decades. The age group using YouTube is expanding from children to the elderly. With the change to a structure that can generate revenue, people can make money from videos they posted. As a result, a job called “YouTuber” was created. YouTubers post their own videos and make money from the number of views and advertisements in the videos. Consequently, some YouTubers have come to use provocative contents that can attract people’s attention to record as many views as possible and to attract as many subscribers as possible. In other words, uncensored videos began to appear indiscriminately on YouTube, which is easily accessible to anyone.

The first problem is videos containing violent contents. People can easily find videos of violent behavior, cursing, stabbing, and streaming high-violence games on YouTube. These violent videos are more easily found by people because of the high number of views. Among the violent videos, those known as Prank videos are ones with the most problematic content. Prank is comedy genre that refers to jokes such as surprising people and making them confused by creating absurd situations. At first, on YouTube, Prank videos tricked people such as throwing water or destroying things. However, there are lots of inappropriate contents like setting fire in the street and spraying blood. One YouTuber even uploaded a video of her boyfriend strangling her, just because it was a Prank.

The second point is that sexual videos can be easily viewed without adult authentication. In YouTube, videos of heavy exposure or behavior were restricted to adults only. However, videos that imply sexual meaning are not subject to restrictions and the rules governing them are ambiguous. Among them, ASMR is one of the biggest problems. ASMR stands for automatic sensor meridian response, a video that stimulates the brain to induce psychological stability. However, some YouTubers upload videos simply to display their physique or tell obscene stories under the name of ASMR.

Violent and sexual videos have a negative effect on viewers. It is especially difficult for children who are passing through childhood and adolescence, the age at which identity is formed. YouTube is actually aware of these problems and is looking for ways to block these videos, including plans to implement a Kids Channel for children. The Kids Channel policy is to set the age group for viewers of videos uploaded by YouTubers themselves. When videos are categorized as Kids Channels, the comment function is stopped, and some functions, including advertising, are limited. However, sometimes videos for adults are classified as Kids Channels due to the lack of clear criteria for adults. Also, the policy is just for children and it does not apply to teenagers or adults. Thus, some people are asking YouTube to study how to restrict these contents and improve its vague regulatory criteria.