Having no script, there was no language barrier on the videos, which would normally hinder worldwide distribution. The videos themselves had background music but no dialogue. The channel showed people dressed as characters like Spider-Man, Elsa, and the Joker engaging in bizarre or nonsensical actions. In June 2016, The Guardian published an article about the channel Webs and Tiaras, which had been created in March of the same year. In late November, the company started to mass-delete channels and videos falling into the Elsagate category, as well as large amounts of other inappropriate videos or user comments relating to children. That year-after reports by several media outlets-YouTube adopted stricter guidelines regarding children's content. Public awareness of the phenomenon grew in late 2017, as mainstream media started to report about child safety on YouTube. Despite the objectionable and often confusing nature of these videos, it has been considered for receiving positive receptions or attracting millions of views. They also include automatically placed commercials, making them lucrative to their owners and YouTube. In order to capture search results and attract attention from users, their titles and descriptions feature the names of the fictional characters, as well as keywords like 'education', 'learn colors', 'nursery rhymes', etc. Despite YouTube's age restriction policies, these videos are sometimes tagged in such a way as to circumvent the inbuilt child safety algorithms, even ascended onto YouTube Kids, and are thus difficult to moderate due to the large scale of the platform. Most videos in this category are produced either with live action or inexpensive Flash animation, although a few channels use more elaborate techniques, such as claymation or computer-generated imagery. However, the Elsagate controversy has also included channels, such as Toy Freaks, which featured or focused on real children instead of fictional characters, raising concern about possible child abuse. The term itself is a portmanteau of Disney's Elsa of Arendelle-known for frequently appearing in such videos-and '-gate', a suffix for scandals. These videos often feature fictional characters from family-oriented media, sometimes via crossovers, used without legal permission. Most videos under this classification are notable for presenting content including graphic violence, sexual situations, fetishes, obscene language, drugs, alcohol, nudity, injections, disease, off-color humor, dangerous or upsetting situations and activities. Examples of the situations featured in such videos can be seen above, such as injections, mutilation, childbirth, urination, fellatio, and chemical burning.Įlsagate is a neologism referring to the controversy surrounding videos on YouTube and YouTube Kids that are categorized as 'child-friendly', but which contain themes that are deemed inappropriate for young children. Thumbnails of Elsagate content are often represented by recognizable, family-friendly characters performing child-inappropriate or otherwise disturbing actions, either through explicit depiction or implication.

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