Jeremiah Butler
Staff Writer
To many, Youtube has shared both hilarious and shocking moments in its 13-year tenure. At SLA, Youtube is relevant throughout personal use and projects in SLA. While Youtube has beneficially impacted the type of media that students watch, it has also been detrimental to many students’ lives. Youtube has made several attempts to keep its content safe for everyone, but the questions many ask is: Is Youtube doing enough to keep the content viewed safe or is it too much?
Sophomore Grace Conley voiced her dismay at how loose Youtube’s content rules are.
“I feel like Youtube is just a place where people are just kinda talking crap about each other and I wanna know when is it justifiable to report someone for harassment,” Conley explained.
Many incidents have occurred on Youtube that has altered the decision making of channels that viewers watch. One of these incidents involved Youtuber Logan Paul. Paul posted a video of himself and a group of friends in Japan’s Aokigahara forest or Suicide Forest. In this video, Paul was shown with the body of a suicide victim in the forest. This video infuriated millions including politicians, celebrities and many others, including Grace Conley.
“I don’t understand how you could go to a place where a lot of people go. It’s just a very sad environment there arere’s dead bodies and then make jokes about it. Then have a petty apology? I feel like he doesn’t see the consequences of what he does,” Conley explained passionately.
Conley went on to summarize the conversation between her friends about the Logan Paul video.
“We talk about, if we have a common video that we all watch the Logan Paul incident, about do you think this is wrong or not. But then it’s that thing again with harassment. Is that a joke, is it not a joke, where’s the line? Then we have that conversation of what’s taken seriously and what’s not,” said Conley.
However, in response to the Logan Paul video, among others, Youtube decided to strengthen their rules on inappropriate content. Sophomore Zeyah Gomez recognized Youtube’s effort and applauded it.
“ I see what [Youtube] is saying about not all Youtube videos that people put out are really age appropriate, so I think they just want to have clean videos up on their site,” Gomez said.
These rules and regulations have allowed Youtube to become a more safe and effective learning tool. SLA utilizes the platform in a fashion that isn’t as common in other schools.
“Some people in SLA post videos on youtube and there is a lot of people who are fans of them. Most science classes, instead of having a real curriculum, put on youtube videos to teach to kids,” Conley stated.
For projects concerning the production of a video, students are required to post their finished videos on Youtube and relinquish their finished products to anyone accessible to Youtube.
This is a way for the SLA community to be proud of their work and to post videos that make them look good on the world wide web.
Despite a murky past with inappropriate content, Youtube is doing a much better job making their platform a better place for people of all ages.