Advocacy groups push YouTube to crack down on “AI slop” for kids

Summary

Advocacy groups are pressing YouTube and Google to change how the platforms handle AI-generated video aimed at children, warning that low-quality “AI slop” videos are reaching young viewers—especially on YouTube Kids—without adequate labeling or safeguards.

In a letter sent Wednesday morning to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Fairplay said it has “serious concern” about the spread of AI-generated videos on both YouTube and YouTube Kids. The letter was signed by more than 200 organizations and experts, including children’s advocates such as child psychiatrists and educators. Fairplay described much of the AI-generated content as fast-paced, with bright colors, lively music and clickbait-style titles designed to keep young viewers watching.

Fairplay said the harms it attributes to “AI slop” include distorting children’s sense of reality, overwhelming their learning processes and “hijacking their attention,” leading to more time online and displacing offline activities it said are necessary for healthy development. The letter said those harms are “particularly acute for young children.”

The group asked YouTube to take multiple steps, including clearly labeling all AI-generated content. Fairplay also called for banning AI-generated content on YouTube Kids, and it urged YouTube to bar AI-generated videos from being recommended to users under 18. The letter further proposed that YouTube create a parent option to turn off AI-generated content even if a child searches for it.

Fairplay’s campaign, which it said also includes a petition, was signed by 135 organizations, including the American Federation of Teachers and the American Counseling Association, along with about 100 individual experts such as “The Anxious Generation” author Jonathan Haidt. In a statement, Rachel Franz, the director of Fairplay’s Young Children Thrive Offline program, said: “Pushing AI slop onto young children is just another testament to how YouTube and YouTube Kids are designed to maximize children’s time online — including babies. AI slop hypnotizes young children, making it hard for them to get off their screens and move onto essential activities like play, sleep and social interaction,” and she added that YouTube’s algorithm makes it “impossible for kids to avoid AI slop.”

YouTube disputed Fairplay’s premise and said it already applies limits for young users. Spokesperson Boot Bullwinkle said in a statement that YouTube has “high standards for the content in YouTube Kids, including limiting AI-generated content in the app to a small set of high-quality channels.” Bullwinkle also said YouTube provides parents the option to block channels, and that across YouTube it prioritizes transparency by labeling content from its own AI tools and requiring creators to disclose realistic AI content. Bullwinkle added: “We’re always evolving our approach to stay current as the ecosystem evolves.”

The letter and YouTube’s policies diverge on how much AI content children still encounter. Fairplay argued that voluntary disclosure policy and what it described as an “extremely limited” definition of altered and synthetic content mean children still see a flood of AI-generated videos that are not labeled as such. The group also said many children watching YouTube cannot read or comprehend an AI disclosure, leaving them “to fend for themselves or their parents to play whack-a-mole.”

YouTube said it is working on developing labels for YouTube Kids. The company’s current approach requires creators to disclose when content that is “realistic” is made with altered or synthetic media, including generative AI, while it says creators are not required to disclose generative AI content that is clearly unrealistic, including animated videos and those with special effects.

The campaign follows other developments that Fairplay and other critics may view as part of a broader push to manage children’s exposure to engaging, low-quality content online. It came shortly after Google’s AI Futures Fund invested $1 million into Animaj, an AI animation studio that makes videos for kids and draws in high viewership numbers, according to Bloomberg. It also followed a social media addiction trial in which a California jury found YouTube designed its platform to hook young users without concern for their well-being, with Meta also found liable on the same counts.

Earlier this year, Mohan listed “managing AI slop” as one of YouTube’s priorities for 2026. In a January blog post, Mohan wrote that YouTube was “actively building on our established systems that have been very successful in combatting spam and clickbait, and reducing the spread of low quality, repetitive content.”