Warning over ‘suicide guide’ hidden in YouTube cartoons

A mother in the US has raised the alarm about children’s cartoons on YouTube that contain a hidden message demonstrating how to commit suicide by slitting one’s wrists.

The video begins as a compilation of clips of the popular Nintendo game Splatoon, rated appropriate for children aged seven and over by European ratings board PEGI.

However, after a few minutes, the video suddenly cuts to a man standing in front of a green-screen “in an apparent effort to have him blend in with the rest of the animated video”, says CBS.

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“Remember kids, sideways for attention, longways for results,” he says, while miming the action of slitting his wrists. He adds: “End it.” and the video returns to the cartoon clips.

Dr. Free Hess, a mother and paediatrician who runs the Pedimom parenting blog, said she was first alerted to the video last year by another parent.

“This video was intentionally planted on YouTube Kids to harm our children,” the unnamed mother wrote on Pediblog. “He waited until parents’ guards were down, thinking their kids were just watching a harmless cartoon when he made his entrance four minutes and forty-five seconds into this video.”

After the blog drew attention to the clip, it was removed from YouTube Kids. However, Hess says that the disturbing video has now resurfaced on regular YouTube, still disguised as a Splatoon compilation.

“It makes me angry and sad and frustrated,” she told CNN. “I'm a paediatrician, and I'm seeing more and more kids coming in with self harm and suicide attempts. I don't doubt that social media and things such as this is contributing.”

Hess said the disturbing videos were just the tip of the iceberg, and claimed to have found cartoons on YouTube Kids portraying “self-harm, suicide, sexual exploitation, trafficking, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and gun violence which includes a simulated school shooting”.

She urged parents to be vigilant about their children’s online activity and called on YouTube to work together with parents to ensure that disturbing homemade videos cannot reach young viewers.

In a statement, YouTube said that it welcomes user reports of “problematic content”, and strives to remove inappropriate videos quickly.

“We've also been investing in new controls for parents including the ability to hand pick videos and channels in the app. We are making constant improvements to our systems and recognise there's more work to do.”