The current prevailing non-tin-foil-hat theory is that some animators realised that they could game YouTube's suggestion algorithm, and that kids videos are an easy target. Kids also are very inquisitive when it comes to subjects you tell them are inappropriate. Over time the videos with darker themes got more clicks and it has spiralled out of control since. Throw in some bots to increase views and comment rapidly once videos are released to increase rankings and you've got a perfect ad-revenue scheme.
Of course there's nutjobs who think it's a pedophile ring normalising sexual violence to kids, but there's an equal likelihood of pizzagate being real.
I think that's over thinking it a bit, youtube algos are easy to manipulate and a single thread on 4chan can create a fair bit of weird media, for the explicit intent of creating weird media.
I do prefer the 4chan theory, since it satisfies Occam's Razor. That said, the frequency of new videos from multiple channels dedicated to nothing but these videos, as well as the monetisation, makes it unlikely. Also considering the number of subscribers the subreddit has I'm sure that if there were any new 4chan threads suggesting people make those videos it would've been spotted.
It's honestly the sheer number of videos that is the shocking part of the mystery. It's not just a few dozen videos from different animators, it's hundreds of videos from dozens of channels pumping this stuff out. Unfortunately I find it unlikely that we'll ever find out the cause.
The cause is algorithms run amok. Find popular keywords: Elsa, Frozen, Fidget Spinner, Sexual. Have an AI mix these in whatever weird way and churn out nightmare fuel to kids, in exchange for big fat ad revenue. Kids, more easily manipulated, and with a whole life as consumers ahead of them, are valuable targets...
Both can be true at the same time. 4chan is basically about pointing and laughing at things on the internet, right? So it doesn't matter much whether they're gaming YT's algorithm to show disturbing things to kids, or pointing to other people doing it.
(Also, I find it weird to give a kindergartener unsupervised access to any internet device. They don't understand the threats they're confronting.)
Letting a multi-billion-dollar surveillance company show more or less whatever it wants to very young children seems like a bad idea. We tried a very primitive version of this model a couple decades ago, with Saturday morning cartoons interspersed with ads selling sugary cereal, and the results were not great.
That seems like a reasonable non-tinfoil-hat explanation. So why does the elsagate videos follow MKUltra patterns? Is is purely found to be more effective for monetization purposes?
Unlike the other posters, I'm not going to pretend I don't know what you're talking about. That being said, what's the point of those "MKUltra patterns"? Are they supposed to trigger some special reaction on children?
TL;DR - Thousands of extremely unpleasant videos have been published to Youtube for Kids where they have got billions of views. In many cases the videos have expensive production methods such as stop motion. Youtube has been aware of the videos since 2015. Here is an informative video on the topic.
Just a heads up, there are disturbing content and themes here. This topic is not for the feint of heart.
Thanks. FWIW - I actually don't know if its related to elsagate I was hoping to get more information in this thread (though this seems to be going nowhere).
MkUltra as far as I understand is about conditioning emotional responses to specific events or triggers. In the case of elsagate the objective seems to be to condition children to think traumatic events are normal and part of every day life. Such as being tied up, being given a needle, being defected or urinated on, locked in a closet surrounded by bugs, etc.
Its an unpleasant topic to research but there is a lot of information out there that has been declassified. Based on what I have seen I would say yes there is a relationship between the two. It could be that the MKUltra techniques are being used to captivate their audience in order to make more money on monetized videos. Not necessarily anything more sinister, though that alone is pretty terrible if true. Those videos are sick.
I see. That is very interesting, thank you. I also believe there's something really wrong with our society, and unpleasant and ill things are being normalised little by little by the media (youtube is the media too!), etc. It's frightening to think too that people will get fed up and the pushback will really be ugly.
The current prevailing non-tin-foil-hat theory is that some animators realised that they could game YouTube's suggestion algorithm, and that kids videos are an easy target. Kids also are very inquisitive when it comes to subjects you tell them are inappropriate. Over time the videos with darker themes got more clicks and it has spiralled out of control since. Throw in some bots to increase views and comment rapidly once videos are released to increase rankings and you've got a perfect ad-revenue scheme.
Of course there's nutjobs who think it's a pedophile ring normalising sexual violence to kids, but there's an equal likelihood of pizzagate being real.