More than 200 child advocacy groups and experts are demanding that YouTube ban AI-generated “slop” from its children’s platform entirely, arguing that the low-quality, algorithmically produced videos are rewiring young brains and raking in millions while parents and regulators look the other way. The open letter, organized by children’s advocacy group Fairplay and addressed to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, was signed by more than 135 organizations. Signatories included the American Federation of Teachers and the American Counseling Association, as well as prominent researchers such as Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation. The letter’s authors say YouTube is not only failing to stop AI slop from reaching children but is also actively profiting from it. “AI-generated videos are really just an escalation of a myriad of problems that YouTube already has when it comes to interfacing with kids on their platforms,” Rachel Franz, director of Fairplay’s Young Children Thrive Offline program, told Fortune. “It’s important to address this AI slop phenomenon, but it’s also equally important to take YouTube to task for the way that its platform is designed to hook users into spending more time in ways that aren’t necessarily related to AI.” Read more: https://fortune.com/2026/04/01/ai-slop-200-organizations-letter-youtube-google/ submitted by /u/fortune
Originally posted by u/fortune on r/ArtificialInteligence