A mother recently discovered kids' cartoons on YouTube and YouTube Kids that included suicide instructions. In the middle of the cartoon, a man with sunglasses is spliced in instructing children on how to slit their wrists.
When Free Hess reported the video it took almost a week to get removed.
"I'm a pediatrician, and I'm seeing more and more kids coming in with self harm and suicide attempts," Hess said. "I don't doubt that social media and things such as this is contributing." She also found videos praising "sexual exploitation and abuse, human trafficking, gun violence and domestic violence".
In a statement, YouTube said, "Flagged videos are manually reviewed 24/7 and any videos that don't belong in the app are removed."