Second time in two weeks I’ve talked to a dad whose teenage son is being radicalized by content recommended to him by YouTube. Regular folks have no idea this stuff is out there, being force fed to kids, and no tools to help reduce or prevent the harm.
Credible-looking (or moderate-posing) content ties to popular culture or current events, then introduces particular framings or phrasings where the only search results are conspiracy theories and extremist content. From there, the kids go down the rabbit hole.
Tapping into every teenage kid’s suspicion of authority or desire for dramatic narratives is easy. “Here’s a secret story they don’t want you to know, which will make you feel powerful but also bring you into a community of like-minded people” is an almost irresistible drug.
So a kid goes looking for info on their favorite comic book movie or singer, sees someone saying “that thing is bad, for this reason”, not realizing it’s thinly-veiled racism/sexism. The every time the hateful rhetoric gets more overt, it’s couched as being “ironic” or a joke.
(You can see the anti-patterns play out in 2 ways in the responses to this thread. One, “I bought into conspiracies this way, so stop shutting them down!” Two, “That’s only a worry for Bad Kids or Bad Parents, not me! Just turn it off!” Both are dangerous reactions to extremism.)
