We now live in an environment where anyone can easily enjoy videos posted online. It is not uncommon for young children to search for and watch videos via smartphones or tablets. For children with sensitive minds, these videos may influence their mannerisms and character development. Here, we would like to take this opportunity to outline important considerations and our school’s policy regarding young children watching videos.
- Beware of the malicious video “Elsagate”
- Regarding Young Children Watching Videos
- Widely Shared Videos and Safe Viewing Considerations
Beware of the malicious video “Elsagate”
Elsagate refers to videos disguised as educational content for children but actually containing violent or sexual content. The problem is that these videos spread as family-friendly content on platforms like YouTube and YouTube Kids, and can even bypass filtering services designed to protect children from dangerous sites.
When the issue first arose, many animated works featured Elsa, a character from the Disney film Frozen. This led to the combination of Elsa and the English word “gate” (used for scandals or misdeeds), resulting in the term Elsagate.
Many Elsagate videos start with a seemingly normal story, but things take a turn midway. Strange events occur, such as a heroic character suddenly resorting to violence, a princess engaging in sexual acts, or insects emerging from mouths or stomachs.
Why would anyone create and post such content? The motive is likely to boost view counts and earn advertising revenue, but it is clearly harmful to children’s healthy development.
Just because it features Disney characters doesn’t mean it’s absolutely safe, nor does being a famous children’s anime guarantee it’s harmless. Please be cautious of ElsaGate.
Regarding Young Children Watching Videos
We now live in an environment where anyone can easily enjoy videos posted online. It is not uncommon for young children to search for and watch videos via smartphones or tablets. For children with sensitive minds, these videos may influence their mannerisms and character development. Here, we outline our school’s policy regarding young children watching videos.
The following types of videos are not recommended by Knock knock.
１．Violent/Combat-Themed Anime
- Reason
- Contains frequent depictions of punching, kicking, slashing, shooting, etc., posing a risk of imitation.
- Example
- Videos containing excessive violence, bloodshed, combat scenes, etc.
２．Horror/Gore-Oriented Content
- Reason
- Can easily cause fear or nightmares.
- Example
- Zombie-themed anime (including foreign horror)
３．Sexually explicit or adult-oriented content
- Reason
- Preschoolers cannot understand this content, leading to confusion and mislearning.
- Example
- Adult anime, sexual parodies
４．Excessively stimulating or nonsensical videos
- Reason
- Highly addictive. Causes distraction and restlessness.
- Example
- Italian Brainrot, bizarre parodies, high speed cut videos, etc.
５．Content promoting antisocial or dangerous behavior
- Reason
- Leads to imitation and distorted values
- Example
- Videos encouraging lying or bullying
６．Excessive product promotion, gacha, or unboxing videos
- Reason
- Increases excessive desire and attachment to objects
- Example
- Toy unboxing or gacha-style videos (highly promotional)
Widely Shared Videos and Safe Viewing Considerations
Stimulating videos tend to be more popular and spread more easily, but caution is needed regarding their content. To give a specific example, series like “Attack on Titan,” which strongly contains the elements mentioned in points 1 and 2 above, are not recommended for young children. Additionally, while Italian Brain Rot is also very popular, some videos contain blasphemous expressions toward specific religious beliefs or mock the deaths of children during war (such as depictions of bombing children in Gaza and Palestine), fitting into points 4 and 5 above.
As a school, we believe videos can be excellent tools for learning and education if they have good content and are of moderate length. We hope children can enjoy videos safely and happily.
Director: Hiroya Higashi
Knock Knock English
