YouTube still hasn't solved its AI problem. Digitally faked content is still seeping through the cracks, as users are inundated with AI-generated brainrot and AI-powered misinformation.
But Google, YouTube's parent company, believes it can at least assuage the worries of concerned parents — with even more AI.
SEE ALSO: Viral hit 'Your AI Slop Bores Me' is more than a joke
YouTube bets on AI-powered kids media
On March 4, the tech giant announced it was investing $1 million into the AI-powered children's entertainment company Animaj , the first kids media business backed by Google’s AI Future Funds accelerator, Bloomberg reported. Under the deal, Animaj will also get exclusive access to its generative AI tools, like Veo and Imagine.
Behind the scenes, AI slop — particularly AI slop created for babies — has become one of the easiest ways to make a killing online. And YouTube is particularly rife ground, as the video viewing platform attracts the youngest demographic of child viewers .
Google has acknowledged its AI slop problem before, and even made efforts to demonetize accounts that post "low quality clutter ." But studies show that children are still regularly recommended AI slop by YouTube's algorithms. A New York Times YouTube's child safety policies . In addition, YouTube does not require AI labelling on animated videos, the Times reported.
"It's not unlike Google to try to deflect attention from the real issue: AI slop is rampant on YouTube and YouTube kids, which puts developing children at risk of harm," said Rachel Franz, director of Fairplay for Kids ' Young Children Thrive Offline program. Fairplay is a child safety nonprofit that researches the impact of screen time and commercial advertising on early childhood. "If 'managing AI slop' was really YouTube's top priority this year," said Franz, "they would have already taken down the millions of AI-generated 'Made for Kids' videos that are designed to entrance young children, leading to more screen time and displacing the activities they need to thrive offline."
What is Animaj? Animaj is an AI content studio geared toward children's media. A 2026 show reel highlighting the company's flagship brands shows Animaji's particular emphasis on popular kids' IP, including Pocoyo and Ubisoft's Rabbids. "Animaj is a next-generation media company building the future of kids’ entertainment," the video description reads. "We acquire and grow iconic children’s IPs such as Pocoyo and Maya the Bee into global franchises through a digital-first, multi-platform strategy powered by AI-driven creativity."
Animaj scales existing IP using its proprietary AI tools, with the goal of bringing content "wherever kids are, whenever they want it. " The company's co-founder Sixte de Vauplane has said he sees Animaj as proof of concept for high-quality, feature-length films powered by AI.
The company is affiliated with several kid-centric YouTube channels too, including the infant channel Hey Kids , a brand with more than 4 million subscribers. Bloomberg reported that the company's affiliated channels accumulated more than 22 billion views in 2025.
The problem isn't just AI "These videos are pretty typical AI-generated videos that attract families because they are nursery rhymes and feature kid-friendly characters. But the videos are more about mesmerizing than anything else," said Franz.
Child safety advocates and education experts warn against content aimed at "mesmerizing" children with stimulating visuals and music, instead steering families toward evidence-based educational content with a slower pace and frequent interaction, like call-and-response queues. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns parents against AI-generated content and encourages them to choose longer-form videos over short-form content.
They need to fix their platform. Until that happens, no child is truly going to benefit. Content that mesmerizes children — of which there is plenty on the platform — "displaces the time they need to spend playing, socializing, and using all their senses" during a period in which infants are still "wiring" their brains, said Franz. While this is a particular problem with AI-generated video, it also goes for human-created content, like the popular CocoMelon YouTube channel and even well-intentioned children's social media entertainers. "Now we have this layer of AI that has the potential to have unprecedented effects on our kids," she explains.
Replacing "low quality" slop with "high quality" kids content isn't a solution either, Franz argues, pointing at a body of research showing any screen time has adverse affects on children under the age of two. "Yet, Animaj's YouTube Channels are rife with videos for babies," said Franz. "If Google invests in [channels like] Hey Kids via Animaj, it means that it is investing in harming babies."
And even if you solve for content and age, there still a looming problem: The platform itself. Experts like Franz warn that the YouTube's very design is developmentally inappropriate for most children. Franz notes features like endless scrolling on reels, algorithm-based suggested videos, and the inability to turn off automatic playing as adverse to healthy development recommendations.
With it's focus on existing IP, Animaj may not be in the business of generating the kind of surreal, often obscene, brain rot peddled by hundreds of other YouTube creators. Nonetheless, Franz worries that the normalization of AI and its generative tools may supercharge an industry that is doing the opposite of what early childhood researchers recommend.
In a LinkedIn post last week, AI Futures Fund director Jon Silber said that Animaj is presenting a "blueprint for the future." He wrote that "getting this right for the next generation is a huge priority" for Google.
"If YouTube wants to try to make good content, fine. But they need to fix their platform. Until that happens, no child is truly going to benefit," said Franz.
Topics Artificial Intelligence Social Good YouTube Family & Parenting
Honestly YouTube Kids has been a mess for years. AI just makes it easier to mass-produce the same creepy content farm stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe real problem isn’t AI, it’s the algorithm rewarding quantity over quality. AI just pours gasoline on that fire.
ReplyDeleteParents: please stop treating YouTube like a babysitter. This problem existed long before AI videos.
ReplyDeleteI’m not anti-AI but I am anti-1000 weird Elsa-Spiderman nursery rhyme channels generated by bots
ReplyDeleteYouTube couldn’t moderate human uploads properly for a decade. Now we expect them to moderate millions of AI videos too?
ReplyDeleteEvery time I open YouTube Kids it feels like 20% legit cartoons and 80% uncanny valley nonsense.
ReplyDeletefacts
DeleteThis is what happens when content creation becomes fully industrialized. Kids become the easiest target audience.
ReplyDeletePeople blaming AI but forgetting the ‘Elsagate’ era… this has been a problem since like 2017.
ReplyDeleteLow effort + algorithm optimization = exactly the kind of stuff AI excels at
ReplyDeleteThe worst part is kids don’t even notice. They’ll happily watch the same AI-generated cartoon 200 times.
ReplyDeleteHonestly the safest kids content online is still PBS and old school TV
ReplyDeleteCalling it now: YouTube will promise better moderation, tweak the algorithm slightly, and nothing will change.
ReplyDeleteThe internet used to worry about violent video games. Now we’re worried about AI-generated singing vegetables
ReplyDeleteThis is late-stage algorithm culture. Infinite content for zero humans
ReplyDeleteYouTube isn’t a kids platform and never really was. Trying to force it to be one keeps failing
ReplyDeleteah yes, my child’s favorite show: ‘AI Spider-Man Explains the Alphabet While Falling Into a Lava Pit for 14 Minutes.’ Truly educational.
ReplyDeleteCan’t wait for Season 3 of Pregnant Sonic Teaches Colors While a Train Explodes. Peak children’s programming.
ReplyDeletewhata
DeleteYouTube: ‘We take child safety seriously.’
ReplyDeleteAlso YouTube: 400,000 AI videos of talking trucks screaming the word ‘banana.’
The algorithm when it sees toddlers will watch literally anything with bright colors: UNLIMITED POWER.
ReplyDeleteKids in the 90s: Saturday morning cartoons.
ReplyDeleteKids now: AI-generated Minions singing about dental hygiene in a haunted warehouse 😂
DeleteLUL
DeleteSomewhere out there is a server generating 10,000 videos a day called ‘Happy Learning Fun Train Surprise Eggs 24/7’ and it’s making more money than my entire family tree.
ReplyDeleteI watched one of those channels out of curiosity and now YouTube thinks I’m a 4-year-old who loves screaming vegetables
ReplyDeleteThe scariest part isn’t the AI. It’s realizing an algorithm figured out the exact psychological formula to hypnotize toddlers.
ReplyDeleteHonestly the AI content farms probably have better work-life balance than the humans moderating them
ReplyDeleteYouTube moderation strategy:
ReplyDelete1. Let the algorithm create the problem
2. Release a blog post
3. Repeat
Remember when the weirdest thing kids watched was Teletubbies? We were so innocent.
ReplyDeleteSome AI in a data center right now is generating ‘Cocomelon but the baby is a forklift’ and statistically it will get 12 million views.
ReplyDeleteThe real final boss of capitalism is automated toddler entertainment
ReplyDeleteIn 2030 kids will be watching a fully AI-generated cartoon starring a legally-distinct purple dinosaur named Blarney who teaches cryptocurrency
ReplyDeleteParents in 2005: ‘Don’t talk to strangers online.’
ReplyDeleteParents in 2026: ‘Sure kid, watch the infinite robot cartoon machine.
Every time someone uploads a normal kids cartoon, 3,000 AI nursery rhyme channels spawn like Minecraft zombies.
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens when you let the algorithm raise your kids.
ReplyDeleteour kids
DeleteOur kids? Are we married and I don't know it?
DeleteOr… hear me out… parents could supervise what their kids watch.
ReplyDeleteYeah because every parent has time to sit next to their kid for 4 hours while they watch cartoons.
ReplyDeletePeople survived before YouTube. Turn the TV on and put on actual kids programming.
ReplyDeleteBold of you to assume TV still has good kids programming
ReplyDeleteThe real issue is that the algorithm discovered toddlers will watch literally anything with bright colors and loud noises
ReplyDeleteSo basically the same formula as Cocomelon
ReplyDeleteAt least Cocomelon has humans involved. Some of these channels look like they were generated by a haunted spreadsheet
ReplyDelete“Haunted spreadsheet” is the most accurate description of AI content farms I’ve ever heard
ReplyDeleteRemember Elsagate? This is just Elsagate but automated
ReplyDeleteExactly. Before AI you needed a team making weird videos. Now one guy with a GPU can flood YouTube with 10,000 of them.
ReplyDeleteThe craziest part is that the algorithm promotes it because kids replay the same video 40 times.
ReplyDeleteToddlers are basically the perfect engagement metric.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere out there is an AI generating “Fire Truck Learns Colors with Screaming Eggs” and it has 90 million views.
ReplyDeleteAnd the creator is probably making more money than a teacher.
ReplyDelete😂😂
DeletePlot twist: the creator is also AI.
ReplyDeleteHonestly wouldn’t be surprised if in 5 years the entire kids section of YouTube is just bots making content for other bots.
ReplyDeleteFinally, the internet returns to its natural state
ReplyDelete🙏
Delete